Two Cookies and a Shot of Whiskey Please.....

Deep, deep sigh.

This morning was Caroline's 5-year old well visit at the pediatrician. Those of you with 5-years olds know that the 5-year old well visit is a doozy because multiple vaccinations (i.e., SHOTS!) are necessary. Abby had to get 4 shots at that visit, and I wasn't sure how many Caroline would need. Caroline, of course, knew about the impending needles and was....less than thrilled by the prospect of the appointment.

I don't know why exactly but the well visits always take at least 45 minutes and usually an hour, so this time I planned ahead and brought four books to read, three of which were new from our recent scholastic book order. I figured I could keep Caroline and Ben mostly occupied with four fairly long picture books.

We arrived about 10 minutes early for our 9:45am appointment. Unfortunately, the appointment was scheduled at 9am. I completely blew it. Today's doctor visit was for 9:00am, but next week's dentist appointment for Caroline is at 9:45am. So, I asked the nurse if she'd like me to reschedule, but she said we should stay. I had had Abby's 7 year old well visit last night (no shots required), and the doctor's office was running 25 minutes late even though we had the first appointment after dinner break. I figured the nurse was being nice to us today since we were understanding last night. Good karma and all.

Take a guess how long we were at the doctor's.

No, now guess higher.

TWO HOURS AND THREE MINUTES!

Do you know how difficult it is to keep a climbing 2-year old off a computer, a spinning chair, and out of a trash can and a biomedical container for 2 hours while trying to comfort a completely hysterical Caroline? (who only needed 2 needles and one nasal vaccine) Any germ that was lurking in our exam room was found by Ben who had time to touch each and every surface in the room.

We quickly went through our 4 books. Then we read the two books provided in the exam room: the magazine "American Lifestyle" and a nonfiction book about sloths. Sloths?!

I had promised Caroline that we could go to the bakery and get a cookie after her shots, if she was brave. OK, she wasn't brave at all. I had to use a full body restraint on her for the shots, but we were all starving and fried by the end of the appointment. I thought a tall shot of whiskey would be nice in lieu of a cookie, but I settled for an egg salad sandwich.

Taking children to the doctor could be one of the circles of hell in Dante's Inferno. Taking kids to a crowded post office would be circle 5 or so, and taking kids to the pediatrician is more like circle number 8. I'll reserve circle 9 for later.

Hey, at least it's going to rain all weekend.