The Daddy Badge of Courage

We've had quite a time the last 24-hours. When I went to the doctor last week for Ellie's fever, I asked her about the amount of food Ellie eats and told her she could put down some serious quantities. The doctor looked at her chart, looked at Ellie, and told me that if Ellie was hungry to let her eat. And eat Ellie did on Sunday. She had a normal breakfast and lunch, but her dinner was a little over the top. We went to my parent's house for dinner where Ellie ate ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, Gerber pasta, strawberries, and washed it all down with milk. And after all of that, she still could have kept going. Sometimes I'm afraid that she has that disease where you can't tell how much you've eaten and the parents have to padlock the fridge so the child won't eat herself to death. I saw it on Inside Edition.


We made it home and she seemed okay, but then around midnight, she started crying... well, screaming actually. I went in there and could tell she had pooped, so I changed her diaper. Same thing happened at 1AM. At 2AM, she woke up again, and I did something I never do - I brought her into bed with us. She was being quiet, but all she wanted to do was stick her finger in my nose or poke me in the eye. And when I say "poke me in the eye", I mean she actually uses her thumb and index finger on her left hand to pry my eyelid open and then pokes me square in the eyeball with her right index finger. So she had to go back to her bed. Not happy.


I had a meeting in Arlington at 8AM so Lee graciously offered to take my car (where the car seat is) and drop Ellie at day care on his way to Denton. When he got her out of the car, poop streamed out of her diaper, into her shoes, and all over him. They dressed Ellie in her spare outfit (a pair of skin tight pajamas) because I had forgotten to pack a legitimate spare outfit, but Lee had to go back home to change (and he missed his meeting). Around 9AM, the day care called to tell me that Ellie had "round two" and I needed to come get her. This sounds great - but not so fast - I had to drive from Arlington to find Lee in downtown Dallas and switch cars to get the car with the car seat. And I should mention that I am am walking with a limp today because the back is worse.


I finally got to daycare only to find Ellie running around outside with all of the other kids in her skin tight sea foam green pj's and red and black one size too big aqua socks (she had pooped in her shoes). Awful. All she needed was a tinfoil hat to complete her crazy baby look. I'm glad she's not old enough to know she looked totally ridiculous. By the time I got there, they told me she was a lot better and hadn't had any more "problems". She was fine the rest of the day, so that's where she stayed. When I picked her up, her teachers said she had three servings of ravioli for dinner so she must be feeling better. Poor sweet Ellie. First she had the virus and now this. I will be monitoring her food intake much more closely now.


Aside from Ellie's chronic illnesses, Lee and I had a really nice anniversary last Thursday. He surprised me by taking me to dinner at Fearing's. It's a beautiful restaurant, but everyone there (including the waitstaff) takes themselves a little too seriously. Our waiter had a specific way that he poured our wine every time - very robotic with three movements. At the end of the evening/bottle, I asked him if that was the way the restaurant instructed him to pour wine, and he told me he didn't know what I was talking about. That's just the way he poured wine. Really? You naturally pour wine like Rosie on the Jetsons? That's weird.


I also ran into a bit of (un)luck last week depending on how you look at it. Lee bought me the cutest tunic from Tory Birch. When he got it home, he noticed one of the little mirrors on the sleeves was coming loose so he took it back to have it sewn. When we returned to pick it up, they couldn't find it. Apparently they had re-sold it. I was so ticked off. I called their corporate offices, and now I get to go back and pick out any item in the store. This is going to require some thought... I honestly just wanted the shirt back, but they couldn't find it at any store. As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.