Love and laughter to you all from me and from Lyra in spirit.
July 26, 2008
Living with Lyra
Kay Thompson, Editorialist
Living with my 6-year-old daughter, Lyra, can sometimes be quite an adventure. Most of the time she’s affable and easy to deal with. She has a good heart. Her daddy said one day she was watching closely while he was playing a computer game. He finally lost miserably. Lyra patted him and said, “That’s OK. You can try, try again like I do.”
The other day, however, she got mad and was not fit to be around. A little background: We had gone to Oklahoma City for her chemotherapy. Lyra is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. She did fine with the chemo, though she didn’t, of course, enjoy the process. But she was happy enough.
She went home with her daddy to spend the night while I went to a hotel, because she had an appointment at the clinic the next morning and it didn’t make sense to drive all the way back to Stillwater, then get up early to drive right back again.
She was happily eating supper when she suddenly spiked a fever and started panting for breath. So off to the emergency room she went. This was at about 6:30. They never did figure out what was causing the fever, but it went down again so they discharged her, but not until 1:30 in the morning.
Needless to say, she was not well rested the next morning when it was time for her appointment. We figured it would be easy, since the appointment was with a neuropsychologist, and Lyra would just have to play games and answer questions.
All went well for about an hour. Then Lyra decided she’d had enough. The psychologist came to get me, because all Lyra would do was cross her arms and go “humph!” She really made that sound.
That was the end of that session. Lyra was clearly not going to be cooperative, so we made an appointment to finish the assessment a different day and we went on our way.
Looking back, I realize now I was foolish, but I took Lyra to another appointment that afternoon, to have her eyes checked. It did not go well. By this time she was really tired, and very angry — at me. Why, I don’t know, but she took care to let me know. If she’d been a cat, her ears would have been laid back and she’d have been hissing.
This went on all afternoon. She told me, in so many words, that she was angry with me, that she didn’t like me, that she wasn’t going to stay with me, and many other statements I choose to forget. My patience was definitely tried that day.
And on it went, until bedtime. The girl can really hold a grudge. She calmed down a bit after I gave her a talking to about her attitude, enough so that she allowed me to rub her back after she went to bed. She wasn’t angry enough to do without that. After a good night’s sleep, she woke up happy again.
So living with Lyra can be a challenge at times. I wouldn’t trade her for anything, of course, even on the days when she’s in a foul mood. She is always a delight to my heart, no matter what mood she’s in. She is, after all, my precious daughter.
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Lyra, age 6, right after her Kindergarten graduation ceremony. She was, as usual, in a pretty good mood that day.
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