05/03/05 - Tuesday

My daughter is such a sweet little pain in the ass. And a bit of a hypocondriac to boot. But I have to say.. I was SO proud of her yesterday! Bad mommy lost track of the calendar & didn't realize until 3am Monday morning that 9am was rolling around quickly, and on it's heels was coming.. the Kindergarten physical. We'd been talking about "going to the Dr", next week to be followed by "going to the dentist", both of which are normally a grand event in her little life. She gets SO excited, the buildup between making the appt & actually going almost drives her insane. But... well... you parents out there know what sort of nasty surprize comes with the K physical, don't you? Yeah. Shots. Several of 'em. And I forgot about this appt, so no opportunity to mentally prepare her for potential nastiness. Maybe that was just as well?

First the TB test, which elicited just a bit of a whimper & right at the veeerrry end an "oouuuch, that hurts!" (in a tiny, high, slightly panic-edged voice). I have to say, knowing B, I expected great wails right off the top & was pretty impressed w/ this bit of fortitude.

Then our great peds office team tag-teamed her for the nasty bits -- they had me hold her in a big cross-armed hug to keep her from grabbing anything bad, & nailed her one on each side at the same time so fast she didn't know what was coming. Then the last one she did... but what can you do? Even then, the volume of outraged distress was so much less than I'd anticipated I wasn't certain I was even holding MY daughter. Didn't even begin to rival the circus of attention-demanding wails we get when she does something simple.. like scrape a knee. I guess that's the sign (for now anyway) that it's serious. Lots of noise: not hurt. Near silent whimpers: call an ambulance.

It doesn't hurt that they then immediately bribed the bejeezus out of her. Trotting off to the "loot" room, she came back with a toy, a sticker, and not one, but THREE suckers (one for each shot) clutched in her greedy little hands and not a tear in sight.

Then they gave us a script to go to the lab for a CBC & lead test (we live in an "old" house), & said "you don't have to go today". Are you NUTS? I'm not about to let this momentum pass! Not after you've managed to stick FOUR needles in her body, get off with about 2 min of restrained tears & then bribed her to the moon! I'm riding on your success, buddy. So I bribed her with her choice of whatever she wanted (ice cream) to go get this last one done NOW, knowing the sugar high would only bollux the evening, not the life..

How'd that work out? She was utterly disgusted at the meager offerings of the lab. After all, THEY only gave her a little coloring book & a couple of crayons. Pffft. What kind of bribe is THAT?!! lololol

But finally, my great kid then told me why she had three suckers instead of just one: "But mom, I have to SHARE!" And she did. The waitress at lunch was the surprized but appreciative recipient of one pristine watermelon sucker, & gave B one of the best bits of loot of the day: A great big hug with a smile & a thank you. B beamed happy for a couple of hours after that one. I love my kid.