Saturday, September 01, 2007

honestly...

we admitted a little girl tonight. she's a 6yo who clearly loves everything and everyone, even when she's sick and even when it's nearly midnight and way past her bedtime. she was telling the nurse and me about the very itchy bug bite on the back of her leg. after she showed it to us, she pointed to the red spot on the nurse's chin and said innocently, "look, you have a bug bite, too!" she seemed genuinely ecstatic to have something in common with her. the nurse, who, thankfully, is as kind-hearted and good-humored as they come, said with a laugh, "no, honey, that's a zit!"
the little girl actually reminds me very much of myself when i was her age. i was sitting on my uncle's lap at christmas and, very sweetly my aunt assures me, told him that i thought he must be the hairiest man i'd ever met. i have no recollection of this conversation, but my aunt swears it's true.
you just have to love kids. when else in your life do you just call it like you see it without fear of retribution?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love it - reminds me of my current housemate's favorite story about her badge. She was on call one night, and a little girl who she was admitting pointed to her photo ID badge and asked "Dr. PedsResident, was that when you were young and pretty?"
My friend calmly replied, "Well yes, it was about six months ago, so I guess I *was* younger, and I'm on call, so I probably did look prettier then." Then she laughed about it. A lot.

Tim said...

"...when else in your life do you just call it like you see it without fear of retribution?"

I was hoping for when I'm old too!