She's A Little Faker!

Who is? Lillie is, that's who.

Last night my mother-in-law took the kids for an over-nighter. We were all excited about this... Gloria had been away for a couple of weeks and needed a grandma fix, the kids needed a grandma fix, and I needed an alone by myself fix.

Around 9:00 pm the phone rings. It's Gloria and she's concerned about Lillie. That evening Lillie had started limping and favoring her right leg. By the time bedtime had rolled around Lillie was refusing to walk on it and would crawl around or put her hands up for someone to carry her around. The odd thing about it was that there was no massive accident or fall to cause an injury, nor was Lillie acting like she was in any pain. Gloria actually described her as quite happy and playful - she just wouldn't put any weight on that leg.

We decided to give her Tylenol and put her to bed - hoping that she was better by morning. Well, morning came and Gloria called back to let me know that Lillie was still limping or refusing to walk - nothing seemed better, but she still was not complaining about it.

I went ahead and called the doctor and set up an appointment, then I headed to grandma's house to pick up the patient. I walked in to see a very smiley and happy baby girl... that refused to put weight on her right leg. She hobbled around like an old lady, but by the time I got her stuff together to go, she seemed to be walking around a little bit more and I was getting more suspicious.

The girl didn't act like she was hurting - she was acting like she was enjoying the attention grandma was giving her. Grandma is a great grandma, very attentive and especially loving and sweet to those grandbabies. If one of them is hurt, by golly they are going to receive the best treatment around. Me? I don't baby the sick and wounded. I try to show them that they aren't dying and that we can deal with things without all the drama. So the more that Lillie was with me (the mean mom that I am) the more she was acting like her normal self. She was still limping some, but it was becoming less and less pronounced and at times seemed to almost disappear.

By the time the examination rolled around I was highly doubting that there was anything wrong with the little drama queen. I explained what had transpired to the doctor and let her know that I was kind of thinking that this little girl had been playing her grandmother. After Lillie was checked out, my suspicions were almost confirmed. I was told that toddlers will do this from time to time and it's really not all that uncommon for them to feign a leg injury. She said one time a mom brought in her toddler because they all of a sudden refused to walk completely. She mentioned that we could run tests, but they were probably unnecessary, instead just keep an eye on her to make sure that she doesn't get worse.

So I brought her home, kinda pouting because my home alone morning had been ruined, but also finding the whole thing rather funny. Lillie is quite a character that is for sure and I did enjoy having her all to myself today too. And just so you know, she isn't limping anymore. Steven told her that she's going to have to pay for the doctors visit...