Oh, child.

Everyday we get more and more certain that T1 is, in fact, my biological daughter and that I am, in fact, the one that popped her out rather than Shorty.  I swear if we didn’t have pictorial proof that this is, in fact, NOT the case, we would both be convinced that T1 is my biological daughter instead of Shorty’s.

She cut her hair, twice.  I cut my hair three times as a kid. Shorty never did.

She’s hyperactive and squirmy and sensitive.  Just like me as a kid. Shorty? Notsomuch.

She likes soccer.  Shorty never played a day in her life.  Guess which other mom played for about 12-13 years?

She likes reading.  I am the big reader in the family.

She listens to Belinda Carlisle “Heaven is a Place on Earth” and U2 and many many other songs on repeat when she’s in her room. Guess whose CD collection she is raiding to get those songs?

And let’s not forget, she even frickin LOOKS just like me. Crazy kid.

Last night was the topper on the cake though.  It was made up of one part panic attack, two parts worry, five parts shaking our heads going “really?” and at least a few parts of Shorty looking at me, going “yep. she’s your kid all right.”

What happened is that we put T1 to bed around 8:30- her normal bedtime.  She’s been having a bit of trouble getting to sleep since we got back from California (what with the time zone changes and all), but she laid down quietly and we didn’t hear another peep out of her, so we figured yes, success, go us.  WRONG.  An hour later, she came out of her bedroom, telling us her throat hurt.  Shorty had her come over to look at her throat, and asked if she knew why it was hurting.  T1’s answer?

“I think I swallowed a penny.”

…We both gaped at her, and I am slightly ashamed, slightly amused to report that the first words out of my mouth following this statement were something along the lines of “You think you swallowed a penny??? You THINK? Did you or didn’t you???”.  Not in anger or anything of course, more because we were in disbelief- how could the child not know if she had, indeed, swallowed a penny?

Turns out that the little darling had not, in fact, gone to bed as we had surmised, and had, in fact, been lying there, quietly counting her change from all of her tooth fairy transactions for the past hour.  She had, in fact, just placed a penny in her mouth (why we’ll never know) when an overwhelming wave of sleepiness hit her. She dozed off for a minute and awoke to find… no penny.  Not in the bed, not in the sheets, not on the floor (we checked).  Hence, the “thinking” she swallowed a penny part of the statement, rather than knowing for sure.  At that point though, we pretty much figured she had, since we didn’t think she could make something like that up on her own, so we called the nurse’s hotline to see what to do.  She wasn’t choking, no breathing issues, just saying her throat hurt.  Hospital? Urgent Care? Wait it out?  We weren’t sure, so we called.  Shorty made the mistake of mentioning the word “hospital” in front of T1, at which point my job became calming down the suddenly bawling five year old while Shorty manned the phone lines.  The end decision was that if she could swallow water and bread (she could) and wasn’t in pain, we would just have to… wait for the penny to make an appearance, if you know what I mean.  And make sure it does (yuck) within three days or else take her in.  Oh joy.

The funny part is, after her initial scare, T1 was all in favor of “just double checking” at the doctor’s office. Very me-like behavior- Shorty avoids Dr’s like the plague, I am usually the one in favor of doing a quick office visit to make sure everything is okay.

And? Shorty never swallowed a penny (or any other change) growing up.  But guess who did? That’s right, me.  Only mine got stuck and had to be removed and required a hospital stay.  Thank everything T1’s will (hopefully) pass on its own.

But I swear. Kid gets more and more like me every day.

PS- my next post will be a password protected post so I can post more WEDDING PHOTOS!!! (I totally forgot to PP the first one… oops). Let me know if you need the password again.

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