Last weekend we took our daughter skating for the first time. In 3 months she will be 6 years old, and until now never showed any interest in skating. Suddenly she was ready, and luckily we had already purchased "bob skates" in anticipation of this day. Never heard of "bob skates"? They're two (yes two!) very dull blades attached to a rectangular length of plastic. And the best part is that they attach to any regular snow boot.
She was comfortable, and best of all, she felt pretty stable on the ice. And to be honest, I seriously wished I had a pair to throw on my boots. I'm not a great skater, and my feet hurt in my skates even before we got on the ice.
We are lucky to be able to skate at the Olympic Oval here in Calgary. It's a wonderful facility that is very family friendly, and more importantly, it's nice and warm. A great place to take a little one skating for the first time. So, that's where we went.
We stepped out onto the ice and after a few shaky and "why-the-heck-are-my-feet-slipping-and-sliding-all-over-the-place-maybe-this-wasn't-such-a-good-idea" moments she found her footing. And our brave, brave little girl who usually finds such physical activities so difficult, discovered she loved to skate. Skating is difficult; it requires strong muscles (and feet!), stamina, and it requires a lot of balance and control. My daughter's physical therapy sessions last year focused a lot on building her core muscles so she could balance better. And it paid off. She had to use a skating aid to skate, BUT, she felt confident on the ice, and sure that she could handle herself. She would not have felt this way 6 months ago.
So, off she went. Lap after lap after lap. One and half hours later she was ready to stop, but only because she was hungry. And as I was taking off her snow pants, I realized she was drenched in sweat. I don't think her body has ever worked so hard, and had so much fun at the same time.
And after, even though it was 10:00 at night, we went to a restaurant and had nachos (one of her favourite foods!) She earned it.
While listening to the B-52's song "Love Shack" on the radio, in the car with my daughter.
"Mom, what's a shack?"
"It's another way to say house. When I hear the word shack it makes me think of a small house. Something like a cabin."
"Then is a love shack a love cabin?"
"Yes. Yes, you could say that."
"What's a love cabin?"
"I would say that it is a house full of love. Full of people who love each other. We live in a love shack. You, me, Daddy, and Daisy."
"And the fish. Mom. They're part of our family."
"Yes, and the fish, too."
Silence.
"Mommy, our love shack is full!"
Yes, it is.
These last couple of weeks my daughter has been feeling awful. She has abdominal pain, joint pain (in what seems like every single joint in her body), headaches, sore gums in her molar area, neck pain, back pain, thumb pain, and she's gassy. We went to the doctor last Thursday, he ordered some tests that all came back fine, and she is still feeling awful. She wakes up feeling bad, and spends the entire day complaining of something or another. And it's made her cranky. Very, very cranky. And you absolutely cannot blame her. But, it's making me cranky too. Very, very cranky. Especially because we can't figure out what is going on with her.
So, now what? What the hell are we supposed to do? She is feeling ill all day long (for a couple of weeks now) and the doctor can't find anything wrong with her. How much longer do we wait before going back to the doctor? Certainly it isn't normal for a child to feel this way, for this long, without cause or reason. It is difficult when, as a parent, you are responsible for how your child feels. And for the pain your child feels. I know she is waiting for me to do something about it. To make it go away. But, I have no idea how to do it. Absolutely no idea at all.
Meanwhile, my little trooper has been getting on with getting on. She goes to school, plays, reads, eats, and laughs. Halloween was a highlight. There are interruptions when she can't help but complain about her pain (quite often) and then she goes back to whatever she's doing. Yesterday, it was organizing some animals and dinosaurs into groups, based on whether they were herbivores and carnivores.
If only we all had the stamina of children.
