SO I WENT to Target and I
Stickers and coloring books, I told myself. I had written those two items down on my List: Stickers, coloring books. I didn't bother with a shopping cart.
Nope, wasn't going to need one of those because I was sticking to the List.
But I went to the toy section anyway.
I wandered down the aisles but didn't pick anything up. Then I saw several Angelina Ballerina items on clearance. Now for some reason my daughter loves that prissy little mouse with the dance obsession.
Bye-bye List. I filled up one shopping basket, then another. A dress-up outfit, a couple of playsets, two stuffed animals. Other little tchotchkes.
I'm not normally such a spendthrift. Really. But when I'd left the house, my recovering daughter looked so pale. She could barely talk.
I knew she would get better. She had a routine operation. Still, she was leaning on my husband and me as if she were a baby again.
Children are resilient. They bounce back quickly. My husband and I were already amazed by our daughter. On operation day, she went for her surgery without a fuss, my husband said. I wasn't there--I was with our infant son--but he showed me a short video.
She was wheeled back to the operating room on a little red wagon with her beloved frog stuffed animal, her blanket and a few other prized possessions. She looked nervous, a little shell-shocked, but also determined.
She rarely complained about the pain.
My husband and I told her repeatedly how proud we were of her. But we both felt a little helpless. We couldn't magically make her feel better.
She had been through an experience. She had grown a little.
It was a milestone. We celebrate these rites of passage with gifts. A new school year brings fresh new clothes. Grown-ups get showered with presents for weddings and new babies.
I wonder if sometimes the gifts are a way to take some of the fear out of new experiences.
So I bought presents. And wrapped them up as surprises for my daughter to open. She collected stickers on a chart for eating, drinking and taking her medicine. Stickers earned rewards. Twenty stickers, a small present. Thirty stickers, medium; 50, big.
Somehow, the rules got skewed. We'd give her a small present whenever she ate a big meal. I'd fudge on the chart and add some stickers to get her to 50 when she looked down.
Yes, we've indulged. We bought bottles of her favorite caffeine-free soda, usually a rare treat. She got new princess and Care Bear cups tricked out with special straws to help entice her to drink.
She's had Sprite with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Ice cream for breakfast. Pudding for lunch. Milkshakes, well, whenever she asks.
Dora the Explorer and Shrek have been on continuous play in our living room. I hear the "I'm the Map" song in my sleep.
Our daughter is getting better. She's been hungry a lot. My husband suspects she's eating more now than she did before her surgery.
We are awakened in the middle of the night with requests for popsicles. We deliver.
A kid could get used to this kind of treatment. We have a pretty good suspicion our daughter already has.
We'll definitely have some work to do to get back to normal.
But for right now, indulgence feels right.
KIM BAER is a freelance writer and mother of two who lives in Spotsylvania County. You can e-mail her at
Email: dabaersbk1@netzero.com.