Puppy beats the hiccups

As devoted patrons to PBS and Disney, my children and I have seen numerous characters battle their foes and curiosities; in a few cases their enemies have been the long surviving hiccups.

It came as no surprise then that when Puppy came down with a case of the little body jumpers that she began rehearsing ideas on how to remedy her dilemma.

While drinking water seemed like a good idea, it only resulted in extra potty trips. Holding your breath might work, if you could hold it for longer than two seconds if at all as a four year old (who isn't tantruming and holding her breath for that dramatic effect). We both had a great deal of fun standing on our heads but quickly learned the results of blood and gravity and had to stop before ridding her of the invaders.

"m-o-m (hiccup), they will n-ever go aw-ay!"

I asked her if I should scare them out of her- she agreed but then told me how to scare her so she wouldn't have bad dreams which made for a great game of peek a boo but sort of killed the whole element of surprise we were going for.

I tried everything I knew of and puppy had a few ideas I'd never heard of- including a story of when the sheep had hiccups and the farmer bent over and showed his underwear covered bum... (apparently I need to screen a little bit better) but with no farmer on hand we just decided to try that one some other time.

Alas, I (being the college student that I am) set my brain to work. Since hiccups effect your breathing pattern I wondered how purposefully changing your breathing would effect the little guys... plus I needed puppy to go occupy herself for a few minutes while I waited for buses. So, I told her to go run around our circle (a hallway that connects four rooms which was pretty much our selling point on this house) twenty times.

"Run fast and then slow and then super fast and end turtle slow."

I lost count but upon Puppy's inquiry of nearing completion I quickly shouted, "19 and 20".

Heavily breathing and with a smile on her face she stood there- waiting.

"Mom- they're gone... you did it- you are the best mom", she said with an accompanying thumbs up.

Why thank you. I'm always happy to lend my super powers to a child in need... and I think I may be on to something; if the kids need to solve a problem- whether it's related or not I can always buy some time by having them run in circles twenty times.

...And if that doesn't work there's apparently a large market for stories about how to get rid of the hiccups! (Although I don't think I could top that whole sheep and farmer one... unless I did one about a rhino and a Mr. zookeeper...)