Today I found out my daughter needs to have dental work done in the local children’s hospital. Make that, in the children’s hospital I work at. She will be knocked out for three hours.
As if this wasn’t enough stress, I also found out the total amount I need to have paid before they even touch her is $1,200. I don’t suppose anyone has this in their back pocket with my name on it?
Darn the luck. I forgot to plant my money tree this year.
Tomorrow I have to go to my own dentist, pay $200 and get two fillings fixed. Shots in the top and bottom of my mouth, adding insult to injury. Needless to say, I was a bundle of nerves coming home.
And then the heavens opened up. And the rain fell. Hard.
Just as my daughter and I were finishing dinner, I had an idea. An impulse, you might call it.
“Let’s go out and jump in the puddles!” Her face lit up like a candle. There was near shock in her eyes. An unbelieving shock. “REALLY?!” Oh YEA.
So I rolled up my pants and threw off my shoes while she put on her bathing suit. Out to the front yard and into the gutters. JUMP! SPLASH! SPLOSH! I’m gonna get you! SWISH! SPRAY!!! TEE HEE!
My older neighbor came out to get her trashcan and I swear she looked at me like I was crazy. That made me jump even higher. SPLASHHHH!
We made our way to the sewer and checked it out. Then we started to save worms. Long thin worms trapped in the flooding waters. There’s one! Oh, there’s one! I got one! We must have saved over 50 worms from an untimely death.
Then my daughter spotted something that made it more magical than I could have imagined. A mommy duck was walking the tiniest little balls of fluff across the street. She jumped up onto the curb and the little ones looked puzzled as they stared above. She looked down, looked up, and then went around and down the driveway. Come on little ones! Around and up the driveway and off to the creek. Quack! Waddle! Quack!
“Mommy, I love you,” I heard whispered behind me as her arms slipped around my waist. “And I love you too, honey.”
