Bandanas, The New Fashion Accessory
April 3rd, 2007 by FiddledeedeeWe were sitting down to breakfast. Fiddledaddy was tailoring a sling for Emme, made from one of her many bandanas that she usually wears on her head. “What’s wrong with your arm?” I casually ask. “I broke it,” she sullenly replied. “Again?” “Yeah,” she sighed.
She strode off down the hall to view herself in the mirror, with her broken arm. I commented to Fiddledaddy that it was unfortunate that she broke her left arm, since she’s left handed. “It heightens the sense of drama,” he informed me.
When she returned to the breakfast table, I suggested that she add some splatters of ketchup to her sling, for a more realistic appearance. She leveled her gaze at me. If looks could kill, I would be a vapor trail. My daughter doesn’t share my sense of humor. And she probably won’t until she has her own mini-me. Every day, I come closer to concluding that hypochondria is a genetic trait. The only reason I can snicker is that I am looking in a mirror when I see that child. We have identical personalities. I was constantly sticking bandaids all over myself as I lay on my deathbed, in a desperate bid for attention. My Dad called me “Sarah Heartburn”. Which reminds me, I need to place that weekly phone call to my Dad to offer my sincerest apologies for all that I put my parents through.
A bit later in the day I was working in the kitchen. The sunlight hit me just right, and I was momentarily blinded and fell over the open dishwasher. Making a spectacular landing on the floor. With a loud thud. It could have been so much worse. I could have been holding a knife, a child, or horrors, my favorite mug filled with coffee. Now that would have been a tragedy. The habitants of this house are use to loud crashes and thumps, as someone is always falling down. Usually not me, though. If the fallen comrade is not bleeding, we just step over them. I lay on the floor for a moment or two, looking up, thinking to myself that someone really should dust that light fixture. No one comes to see what the racket was. So I offer a weak “I’m okay!” Fiddledaddy realizes that it’s me who is laid out on the kitchen floor and comes to my aid.
It appeared that I was just suffering from a slightly bruised knee and ego. Nothing that two extra strength Tylenols, a well placed ice pack, and some chocolate ice cream won’t cure. I’ll stoop to using any excuse for ice cream.
Before I tucked her into bed, my daughter and I were wrestling over who would get custody of the ice pack. As I’m typing this, said ice pack is resting comfortably on my propped up leg. And after she’s asleep, I intend to sneak in and raid her bandana drawer. I think the hot pink one will make a lovely tourniquet for my knee. And I’m going to add a few splatters of ketchup. Just for effect.
I wonder how many of my mistakes I’ll have to watch her go through. Everything from incredibly bad fashion choices to life altering errors in judgment. I wish I could impart 40 years of wisdom into her tiny 7 year old bandaged self and save her the trouble. But our life experiences are what shape us. For better or worse. And the best we can do is love her, and guide her well. With God’s grace and help, give her a solid foundation with roots, and watch her grow. And pray that she learns to laugh. And laugh often.
Posted in My Life as I See It | 17 Comments »
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:45 am
Good Morning DeeDee,
First off, I hope your kneee is better this morning! Secondly, I thought as they got older the bad decision making would lessen. I was wrong. One of mine has just made the wrong choice about something (minor, thankfully) and I’ve had to let them make it so they could learn from it. We had already been down this path before and we offered our advice and shared lessons learned. But sometimes you just have to let them and pray that they learn what God is trying to teach them and then pray harder that we learn what God is teaching us!
And on a happier note: My favorite night in Awana is Injury Night!! I have so many splints and slings from past surgeries that I can go to town! The only trouble is people are used to seeing me with all the garb that it doesn’t even faze them! Sigh!
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:40 am
Oh, how hilarious. I can’t even remember the last time I laughed so hard (except maybe every OTHER day when I read your blog)!! I love your blog and read it every day, so I’ll come out of my lurking shadows to comment! : ) Hope you’re feeling better and having a great day!
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:44 am
Oh, I’m just fine. I may even try a cartwheel later in the day!!! That could be the beginning of a whole new post!
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:51 am
you make my heart happy!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:50 am
You are the most delightful, funny, and heartwarming person!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for this blog, it blesses me so much. I am a mommy of three – very energetic, dramatic, and strongwilled girls – under the age of five (won’t the teen years be fun?) Well I have to go attempt some damage control
RSC
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:01 am
I really enjoyed this post. I have my very own mini- me. I call her Minnie Better Me!
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:04 am
I tend to that “if they are not bleeding, it’s not real pain” kind of outlook too and generally don’t overreact too terribly to the spills and skinned knees of childhood. I knew this philosophy made impact the day that I totally turfed it off a curb and fell down in an ungraceful, unceremonious heap on the pavement. And my (then) 5 year old son said “huh. you okay?” and when I said I was fine he said, “good. then get up”.
As always, loving the blog! Hope the knee feels better soon, but not soon enough that you can’t coax service of another bowl of ice cream out of it.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:17 am
I’m seeing myself as a child a bit here, too. I used to have my grandmother use towels to make slings for my arm. It is actually one of my fondest memories of my grandmother, her making those slings for me.
Also, I used to dramatically fall to the floor and play dead when I was alone with my sister. I would lie there for a couple of minutes, then jump up and yell at her for not checking on me. “I could have been dead!” Yeah, right. Just like you were yesterday…
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:54 am
A vapor trail? Haven’t heard that line before, I’m laughing.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Oh my. I run into this one with my oldest. Last week she came in with an absurd outfit–red white and blue star covered tennis shoes, aqua blue socks, embroidered jeans, and a red cutsie t-shirt, headband and sunglasses. I commented on her style to my mother-in-law who looked me overr and said, “She dresses just like you!” (Of course she meant the style as Rachel has yet to develop my awesome sense of color.
)
Great story! Love the ketchup stains.
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
I just have to say that I absolutely love your blog! I crack up (out loud!) almost every time I read it! You have a real talent for writing and I appreciate your openness. Thanks for sharing!
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
:^)
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I throughly enjoy reading your blog. You make me laugh. I’ve been where you are and it sure brings back happy memories. O.K. they are not ALL happy…but interesting.
Hope you won’t mind…but I tagged you . Check it out on my blog.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Delurking to say:
“Which reminds me, I need to place that weekly phone call to my Dad to offer my sincerest apologies for all that I put my parents through.”
That made me laugh. We get frequent calls from our son saying “I get it now, I truly get it” lol
Glad you’re feeling better~
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I have my very own Mini-Me who is now 20, and just about as relationship challenged as I was at that age…**sigh** wish I could pour some of MY life experience into her head…but I loved your blog and gained a bit of perspective from it…I think…I’ll let you know when I quit laughing at the “vapor trail” comment…
Hope you feel better…don’t stiffen up…do those cartwheels…just watch out for the sun!!
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Oh my ! I hadn’t thought about my pretend broken arm for decades. (Gonna have to add that memory to my Journal of Childhood Memories now.) I’m showing my age here, but back in the day, my two sisters and I used to wrap our younger brother’s (clean) cloth diaper around our arms for a cast, pinning it with a pink or blue diaper pin. These diapers with the single layer kind, about 3 feet long and 16-18 inches wide ( before someone got smart and made the multi-layer cloth diaper) so there was a LOT of wrapping involved. (We always had the job of folding the diapers when they came out of the dryer.) Then we would take another diaper and make a sling for our “broken arm”. If memory serves, I think we did this after a neighborhood girl really did break her arm when she fell off her bike and the handle bars fell on an arm, breaking it.
Wonder why it is that only girls do this pretend injury stuff. I mean I’m sure *some* boys might, but I have three boys and the only injuries they ever had were quite real. I’m just sayin’.
When the youngest was zero to two years it was really hard to find a when he was injury free so I could get his picture taken. Oldest brother ran over him with his bike = Stitches in his head, other brother slammed window shut on his “sucking” thumb= lost the nail and took forever to grow a new one (and he quit sucking thumb on account of it hurt too much), endless bruises, older brother fell on him during wrestling match =broken collar bone, oh wait, he was four when that happened. There were a few years when my Christmas letters read like “Eric suffered enough injuries to receive a purple heart this year.”
FYI…You know, a pint of chocolate ice cream, in its containter, of course, makes the best ice pack and when your skin has melted it some, you can open it up and drink a chocolate milk shake.
Hope you feeling better soon.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Oh my! I love it! Now I want some chocolate ice cream……..