Today was an expensive day. Many days are expensive these days it seems. Doing the basic grocery shopping seems expensive. However, today was expensive because Smallsteps fell at school yesterday, and there was a slim (in my opinion) chance that it was fractured. So, the "better safe than sorry" opinion in the household beat the "let's wait a day and see" opinion, and it was off to the private doctor for an x-ray.
Thankfully, we have health insurance for Smallsteps.
This is one of those prepare for the worst decisions that panned out, because we got the insurance before she was born, and we needed it from the day she was born since. Even though it hasn't covered everything, it has covered us for a lot and has allowed us to skip waiting on the public side for hours. And, while it is an immediate hit to the pocket, we will get back around 80-90% of the costs for most normal things. We still use the public side for a lot too, and I can't tell you how many hours we have spent in those waiting rooms over the last eight years.
The hand isn't broken.
Which is a good thing, as I am not sure how an active kid would survive six weeks in a cast. But hopefully (touch wood), she has bones from my side of the family - dinosaur bones. Also hopefully, she has brains from the other side, because unfortunately, I have a dinosaur brain too.
Tomorrow is Vappu here, so it is a day off and there is a market in the city set up with some sideshow games, food and balloons. I finished work a bit later tonight, but because the weather was so warm (around 14°C/ 57°F), we went for a drive to get a balloon a day early.
She got a koala balloon. It is called Kwala.
In the picture, she is playing some "string pull" game, where you pull a string from a bunch, a number comes up and you win a prize that isn't worth nearly as much as the cost of the game. However, Smallsteps did something I wasn't expecting her to do when she was given the option of toy, which was between a little plastic horse figurine, a plastic finger skateboard, or a surprise.
She opted for the surprise.
The woman said, "you can't change your mind after seeing it" and Smallsteps agreed. The prize was a crappy coloring in book, but in my opinion, at least it is more useful than the other two, and Smallsteps was happy.
But it does make me wonder, because normally Smallsteps (while she loves surprises), she also tends to look for certainty when she has to make the decision herself. She tends to take the safe option, which in this case would have been the plastic horse. She is even more likely to do this when it has to be a quick decision, or if there are people waiting, which is why it surprised me, that she went for the surprise.
Such a small thing.
Yet, I could feel some kind of pride in her that she did it, because I am pretty sure that when I was a kid, I wouldn't have and would have played it safe. It makes me think that perhaps she isn't a lost cause that is doomed to follow in her father's footsteps after all.
I am encouraging her to be a bit more outgoing than I was as a child, by ensuring she feels safe enough that she can explore her world. That she can make mistakes, that she can fall down, and while there will be some discomfort and pain, we will be there for her to help her up when she needs, and encourage her to have another attempt. I don't want her to have the attitude of why bother trying if likely to fail anyway, because that is going to end up leading to not trying things that actually have a good chance of success too.
Despite what we might say, most of us would want to be different in some way, and if we could go back into childhood, also make a few different decisions. We don't have to think about what might have happened or what would have changed had we done so, but just knowing that we might want to have acted differently than we did, is enough.
Taken the surprise, rather than the guarantee.
With the day off coming, and since we didn't have a chance to make breakfast for my wife's birthday on Monday, Smallsteps wants to do it tomorrow. So, rather than sleeping in, I will get up and help her instead. Perhaps she will sleep in a bit.
Now, that would be a surprise.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
