Monday, September 04, 2006

Today, of course, I celebrated Labor Day by not laboring.

This is very similar to being resentful on Thanksgiving or forgetting stuff on Memorial Day. I excel at this type of celebration.

In the morning, Hank and I took Daisy miniature golfing. Golfing is near the top of the enormously long list of sports that I suck at and do not enjoy, but miniature golf can be enjoyable about once every decade. (I feel the same way about Kentucky Fried Chicken, except that I don't suck at eating it).

Anyway, I'm pleased to report that despite (or perhaps because of) giving Daisy bad advice about golfing form at every opportunity , I won the First Ever Our House Golf Invitational. Daisy seemed to enjoy herself, but it still didn't measure up to the 10 minutes of Skeeball we let her play in the arcade.

Meanwhile, I ducked over to the batting cages. Although baseball is second on the enormously long list of sports that I suck at and do not enjoy, batting cages are a hoot. This was my second time trying one and boyhowdy do I ever stink at hitting a ball with a bat. Despite having the pitching machine on nearly its slowest speed, I still completely missed about half of the 100 pitches I swung at. I estimate that had these been real pitches in a real baseball game, I would have earned myself a tidy .03 batting average. If I can improve one measly order of magnitude, I'll be ready for Little League.

Afterwards the family went over to a nearby chain restaurant that specializes in Daisy's favorite food: pasta. As always, due to Daisy's allergies, we ordered her food very carefully, but we'd been to this restaurant before, and the waitress was attentive, so we felt comfortable that they weren't going to accidentally kill our daughter.

We ate a good meal, topped off with some excellent and refreshing lemon-flavored soda. Just the thing after golfing in the sun.

As we walked to our car after lunch, Daisy began to clutch her stomach. She was reluctant to admit that anything was wrong, but after a minute she cried out, "I DON'T WANT TO THROW UP!"

This is alarming behavior. Typically Daisy only throws up either when car sick, or when she's eaten something that she's very allergic to, like nuts or eggs. We carry an epinephrine pen with us at all times for those situations.

While Daisy moaned and yelled, Hank suggested that maybe some of the food had been cooked in a nut oil. She reminded me where the epinephrine pen was before bolting back to the restaurant to quiz the cook about the possible allergens that might have possibly gotten into Daisy's food. She came back a couple minutes later fairly certain that Daisy's food was allergen-free.

We comforted Daisy helplessly for a few moments before Hank offered, "Oh, maybe it was that soda. You don't usually have soda. Maybe you just need to burp?"

Ding ding ding!


Daisy's soothing burp came a few minutes later and we all breathed a sign of relief. Hank should be a doctor.

All in all, not a bad day.

7 comments:

patsy said...

it to bad about the child's allergies. i raised 4 children and when they are ill is just about takes your breath away.
some how you have to be calm for her . you need to give her the confidence that no matter what you can handle the sictuation.

Mike said...

I try to be calm in situations like that, but it's funny, I've heard that when someone is panicking (and Daisy does panic) it's best to actually raise your voice to show that you've taken charge of the situation.

Makes sense, I guess, but seems odd.

carey said...

I hate it when kids vomit, so I'm glad Daisy only had to burp.

And happy belated anniversary!

TheTart said...

Glad to hear Miss Daisy is OK!

Smooch,
The Tart

Ps. I read your bloggy all the time, just have not been commenting! Am having a love life for the first time in years. Keep posting ... I love your bloggy!

Sister--Helen said...

You know Mike, it did not seem you were a great deal of help....Thank goodness for Hank.....Maybe you would have held her hair back if she had thrown up?????

Mike said...

Hi Carey, yeah me too. As it turns out though, I think she might have some sort of stomach bug. The stomach ache has returned a couple times.

Tart, oh, thank you for the kind words.

4th Sister, hey, Patsy is supposed to be the sister that gives me a hard time. Besides, go ahead and try to find a single blog post where I say that I'm a good father. Good luck.

patsy said...

tell you what you are human like everyone and when the child is sick she need someone to lean on. we
had the best dad in the world. i always KNEW when i was a child no matter what happen daddy would take care of it and i would be ok. now that i am older i am sure many times daddy was unsure of what to do in many thing that happen in our lives. what i am trying to say i had security because i believed that my father could handle in thing. in your daughter case with the allergies she need assurance that you can handle the problems and then she wont be so frightened when she is ill.the child panics so when she is not ill you need to talk to her about her problem and what can be done and will be done and how she is going to be ok because you are going to handle the problem. my husband could not do that so i learned early on that i had to be the strong one and my children are convinced even today that mom can take care of what ever is wrong.i know that the kind of problem your child she makes it worse when she panics.