Kneedy

 Two hours into school after a ten-day break, Xanthe called to tell me that she had hurt her leg at school.  I reassured her that it was OK and told her to stay until after lunch, since she had packed such yummy food.  In a small voice, she said, "Please come get me, Mom."

When I got to the school, Xanthe hugged me and tearfully told me that she had cried in front of her whole class.  She was so embarrassed and distraught.  She couldn't put any weight on her foot, so I had to help her hobble to the car.  Two dads waiting for kindergartners offered to carry her, but she's pretty big, and she didn't want them to.

 When we got to the doc, I was sure it was broken.  Xanthe's knee was all swollen up and she couldn't straighten it.  She was sobbing, poor thing.  I mean, look at that face!  (Incidentally, she wasn't wearing those leggins at school.  I changed her into them after the injury.)

 She was terrified of the x-rays.

Xanthe was in so much pain, I forgot all about Ptolemy, who was being brought to me from ballet by Marianne.  She had to come in and find me.  Thanks, Marianne!  The verdict on the leg was that...it wasn't broken.  Initially, I was mad because if it were broken, we could fix it.  I just owndered what else could be causing all this pain, and what we would have to do to find out!  But I'm glad she doesn't have to go through having a broken leg, poor girl.  I think the injury was one part pain, one part humiliation and eight parts anxiety and fear.

I brought her home and put her on the couch, where Ruby took care of her while I went to the store to get treats for my brave girl.  Ruby and I looked at each other as Xanthe eventually started alternating between limping and doing cartwheels and decided that we had created a monster.  With all the attention she was getting from the injury, I was sure she would never, ever recover.  Xanthe is an absolute sponge when it comes to attention.  You can lavish her with your undivided attention to no end, and it is never enough.  Never.  If she eats a cookie, she eyes me to see if I'm watching her.  If we listen to music, she sings loudly to make sure everyone notices that she knows the words.  If someone comes over, she starts dancing and twirling right in front of them.  She photobombs every picture.  I'll say something like, "Ptolemy, go get your jammies on," and Xanthe will call, "Who, ME?"  It cracks me up.  Of course, this is all totally normal, especially when you have seven kids vying for attention.  But it still makes me giggle - and drives me nuts, too - that Xanthe can't sit quietly and color.  Rather, she feverishly scribbles so that the colored pencils make more noise, so as to be noticed by everyone around her.  At church, she stretches out her eyes to me, mournfully communicating that she's bored.  But she does it every ten seconds.  Unless she's flopping on the ground, indicating that she is unhappy that I wouldn't let her deliver a note to Esmae a few rows back, or theatrically craning her neck to see Esmae, letting me know that she wishes she were sitting by her.

Yes, Xanthe is very expressive, and always "in your face."  So, pain notwithstanding, it was good to be able to focus on her for awhile yesterday, and administer to her legitimate fear and anxiety.  So many times, life doesn't have time for Xanthe's free-floating anxiety.  She just has to get up and go with the flow.  Yesterday, the flow stopped for a little knee injury, and we all relaxed just a little bit while the universe revolved around Xanthe.  It was nice.  Xanthe is such a beautiful, loving little girl.  I'm so, so glad she's here.

She felt much better...until we got to her cousin Lilah's birthday party, at which point she started limping again.  New audience.  ;)  We gotta get this kid on Broadway!