The Upside-Down Show

This morning I was visiting a patient, a little baby who was lying in his pack-and-play bassinet. I bent over the head of the bassinet, stethescope around my neck, about to take his temperature. He looked up at me in a friendly 2-month-old kinda way, half-amused and half-confused.

"Do I look kinda funny upside-down?" I cooed to him. "Do I look silly upside-down? Huh?"

It was then that his gregarious 6-year-old sister announced like a tiny Bob Barker, "It's....the....upside-down show!!!!!"

Have I mentioned how much I love kids?

They tell the truth. I am an upside-down show at just about any given moment of the day. I have a feeling that for the next several mornings, when I walk into the bathroom half-awake and fumble around for the Sonicare, I will announce my own entrance for the day. "It's...the...upside-down show!!!!"

Oliver got to have his own upside-down day, or more specifically, "miss-match day" at daycare. I got really excited about this. One of the joys of motherhood is getting to dress up your kid in snazzy little outfits while they're still too little to complain or pick their own clothes. Babies have no business wearing khakis, sweater vests, and button-down dress shirts; but it gives their Mommies and often times Daddies a small thrill to treat them like human dollies. Up until some day in their second year, you can exercise some small piece of colorful, put-together control. Until that cute coordinating little outfit gets puked on.

Back to miss-match day.

"Tomorrow's miss-match day at daycare!" I announced to Michael excitedly on Thursday night. You would have thought I was the child in daycare.

"Oooooh," Michael said. "So, what, you're going to have him wear black and blue at the same time?!"

Mean.

I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find something that clashed enough, but I think I did okay. I put product in Ollie's hair and mussed it for extra effect.

Okay but here's the thing: when I dropped him off, I looked around at all of the put-together little children. I was the only one who remembered miss-match day.

Well, that's just upside-down.