Making Lemonade

Maya bashed her finger in the door last night. It's all bruised and blue. This morning, it was still throbbing and I could tell that she wanted to stay home. I felt terrible saying what I said. I think I was hard on her. I made her go to school. I told her that I know it hurts and she probably would want to stay home. Remember when Ranger had to wear that awful cone? He moped around for a few days, but eventually, he figured out how to scoop a tennis ball with the cone, throw it in the air and then catch it. He learned to make the best of it even though he was going through a tough time. I felt terrible. I want to be her hiding place. I wanted to hold her and tell her to stay home. She headed out the door with her throbbing hand up in the air (she said it hurts less) as if she has some questions--we kinda teased her about that too. I felt bad all day and wanted to walk over to school to go get her. When she returned, she was beaming. She told me how everyone helped her with small tasks she was unable to do, like doing up her zipper. It made her feel good to know people cared about her. she challenged herself to write with her left hand, which she thought was fun. She is planning to do a poll among her classmates to see who can guess when her fingernail is going to fall off and offer a prize. She had such a fun day. She chose to have a fun day. Tough love. I am glad she is learning to make lemonade with the lemon she's been handed. *sigh of relief*