"Mom, I'm Playing Hospital!"

This morning, as I was getting out of the shower, my daughter yells to me that she is playing hospital with her toys. All I can think is "Uh-Oh", what inspired this so I start asking questions. Are you hurt? Nope, she's fine. Is one of your toys broken? Nope.

When I joined her, I found the inspriation...she was watching the Dr. Daisy, MD episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.



Unfortunately, playing hospital ended up being prophetic. This afternoon while I was trying to setup our new DSL modem, she was spinning in our office chair and hit her head on the desk. She had a cut on her eyebrow and a huge knot formed almost immediately. Fortunately, this happened at 4:55p so I had time to get through to the nurse line at the pediatrician's office before closing time. They recommended that I take her to either the ER or urgent care, however urgent care wouldn't do stitches if they were needed.

We opted to go to the hospital, since they have a pediatric ER and are used to dealing with children. Ironically, I was concerned about the swelling and any underlying damage and was not overly concerned about the laceration. When the doctors looked at it, the swelling was not an issue and the laceration needed stitches.

My daughter was a champ at the hospital. She held a washcloth with an ice cube to her face on the way to the hospital. She explained what happened to all of the staff who asked. She let them look at it and poke her with a minimum of fuss. She did allow her fear of band-aids to show through when they tried to use one to hold on a cotton ball with numbing solution. They tried taping it on, but in the end we went back to the band aid. The stitches were a little rough, but as soon as it was done, she was fine.

After we were done, all she wanted to do was eat at the hospital cafeteria and get pizza. She was starving and ate quite a bit for dinner.

On the plus side, our trip got us out of helping my sister move. We stopped by to see her new place after dinner. Then came the challenge of stopping at Meijer & convincing her to let us buy magic stickers (aka band-aids)  to cover the stitches. On the way, she decided Tinker Bell Band-Aids would be ok to match her new nightgown. Well, of course that wasn't an option. She settled for Hello, Kitty band aids. After a bath, she allowed me to put one on without a fuss.

So, now we need a new rule. No playing "hospital". What other games should I ban?

Story Time with a 4.5 year old!

My daughter decided it was story time. She wanted to tell them to her friends 1 year old brother who we are watching. I have not edited these. My only input was to ask her to repeat or to clarify something.

"Once a frog met a scary monster. The scary monster made a potion out of the frog. And only if someone smelled him would he be a frog again. But no one ever came to smell him, so he was a potion forever."

"There was lots of people at a zoo. And lots and lots of people came. And they all seed everything and then it was a great zoo and then the animals never ever escaped. They decided to stay there day AND night. And then they drank ate & played. They were so tired they went fast asleep."

"There was a princess who loved to kiss frogs and play and work. And then she found a great castle which was not scary. So she stepped inside and she loved it. And when she stepped inside, she got a princess gown so she became a real princess. And the bed was her favorite color. She liked orange and that was the color of the bed. And then the prince came and married her. and lived happily ever after. The End"

"Once there was a girl who was all alone in a parade. And she never ever met any other friends. And she didn't have any friends. She decided to make friends. But none of the friends didn't like her. Some were boys, some were bad, some didn't like her songs, and dresses, and gowns, and beds. And she never ever made friends. The End."

"It's the bestest one. It is about the bathroom that never ever flushed people down the drain. Once there was a toilet that didn't flush people down the drain. But it always used to flush them down. But it learned to never, ever flush people down. Then they all lived without dying. Then they all played jump, spin like a princess, and lived happily ever after without getting flushed."

"There were arrows being thrown all over the town. Then people pulled on them, took them out, and threw them out in the garbage. Then it was very happy days. Then people through more, and more, and more arrows. Then the city was destroyed and they all went to hospitals."

"It's that tomato frog (a frog grabber with a frog grabber head) got hurt. Then he slept in Francis (her ladybug tent named after the ladybug in Bugs Life) then he was really feeling better now. And he is out of Francis and real happy and he was loved. Then he played almost every day with me. The End!"

I hope her friends don't end up with nightmares from the "happy" endings.