Call Me When We're Back To Skinned Knees

Our entire family is sick. This is not unusual, and pretty well consists of the typical, long winter illnesses. I have a wicked sinus infection. My lovely wife and kids are working the sniffles, with an added cough for the Moose. No big deal.

Well yesterday I get a call at work from my lovely wife telling me the school nurse called about the Princess. She didn't sound especially freaked, so I knew my little girl was alright, and figured maybe she threw up or fell down or something. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but I can handle it.

Instead, she reports that the Princess went to her teacher complaining that went she went potty, there was blood.

Again, my lovely wife's voice is calm, so I'm assuming that I'm not supposed to be freaking out. Internally, however, I was freaking the %#$@ out. As a guy, when I hear someone is urinating blood, I naturally assume that she's either been punched in the kidney or shanked (those elementary school playgrounds are a lot tougher than you think). Still, I took my cue from my wife's calm and asked how we should proceed.

She took our daughter to the pediatrician where it was declared that she's working a urinary tract infection. Apparently this is more common among the ladies, hence my wife's calm. She gets a prescription and a bottle of cranberry juice, and apparently all will be well.

I'm not sure what the lesson to take from all of this is. I guess it's that every time I get comfortable with the idea that I can handle the whole parenting thing, something shows up and reminds me that I am far from knowing everything I'm going to run up against. I'm just glad I have my lovely wife to supplement my feeble knowledge of this stuff. I mean, I would have found out eventually if I had taken her to the doctor myself.

There's a chance though that I would have shown her how to sharpen the end of a toothbrush and given her the talk about making your enemies suffer so as to not lose street cred first, and I really wanted to save that one until she's at least seven.