On Wednesday night after dinner my 8 year old started complaining of pain in her thighs and joints near her hip. She was riding bikes all afternoon and playing hard, so I didn't really think anything of it. She took a hot shower and went to bed. I wake up to her sobbing at 1 am. She was like, "Mom, my legs hurt so bad." She got up to go to the bathroom and was in pain with every step. I got up and fixed her a cup of cold water and made her take some ibproften. I massaged her legs for an hour. She wasn't in severe pain anymore but was still uncomfortable and couldn't sleep. I was freaked out. She didn't have a fever or any other symptoms besides leg pain. So I did what any other neurotic mom would do and I spent an hour on Web MD. It could be growing pains, MRSA infection, cancer. Your mind goes to dark places in the middle of the night when you have a child you can't help. I told my husband he needed to take her to urgent care in the morning to be checked out. He thought I was overreacting. "It's probably just growing pains. What do you think kids did back in the day?" "They died of bone infections. That's what they did. You're taking her."
I had to work and my husband took her and they said it could be a viral infection or growing pains. They didn't know but they confirmed that she wasn't going to die and that's all that I wanted. They told her to stay home that day and she laid around and rested. She had a show for the chorus that night and if you miss school you are not supposed to go to after school activities. She was so disappointed. I told her that if she was feeling up to it, I would still let her go. She worked so hard and had a solo. I just had to.
When I got home I pulled out her chorus shirt and her khakis. She was getting dressed and she said, "Mom, these khakis don't fit anymore." I just purchased them. They are a size 8. "You grew out of these already?" It was 1 hour and 15 minutes until show time. There wasn't time to get new pants. I told her to give me her pants. I stretched the hell out of the waist of these pants. I had my foot on the back and was pulling them. I just needed them to give enough to button. We got them buttoned. I told her to put her fingers through the belt loops and squat a few times. She looked at me sideways. "Just trust me - I've done this a time or two." She did. "Can you breathe?" She nodded. "Okay - they just need to last for a few hours. You can do it." She has been moving into 10/12 clothes. I just forgot about the khakis. Bad mom award on that one.
She asked me to curl her hair. We went into the bathroom and I started to curl. I had the Les Miserables soundtrack in my head. I began to sing I Dreamed a Dream. My daughter said, "Stop singing. It sounds horrible." Well, excuse me. I played it on the IPad instead and lipsynched. I could see my daughters reflection in the mirror, scowling. "What's wrong?" "You're embarrassing me." It was just the two of us alone in the room and she was embarrassed of me. Wow. "Do you want to listen to RENT instead?" She rolled her eyes, "No." I finished curling her hair and I put on some lip gloss and blush and just a touch of mascara - stage makeup. She arranged her hair and looked in the mirror. She looked so beautiful. "Thanks mom."
We went to the school and I dropped her off in the music room. There was quite a crowd. The kids came out wearing Mickey Mouse ears. They sang all Disney songs. My little one came up and did her solo. I was so proud of her. Then the kids sang "Candle on the Water." That's when the tears came. I am so sentimental. Everything makes me cry. Just watching her up there, looking so grown up, so angelic. I was filled with such pride. She is my dream realized. She did awesome. I gave her a big thumbs up and she gave me a little smile.
Afterwards we went to Barnes and Noble for cheesecake. The kids talked me into buying them books. We got home and my daughter got into the shower. I collected her too-small khakis from the floor and put them in the hand-me-down box. I sighed. We have growing pains, indeed.
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