"So throw away those Lamentations,
We both know them all too well.
If there's a Book of Jubilations,
We'll have to write it for ourselves.."

-Josh Ritter




Thursday, November 13, 2008

The story of our day

So, today was the beginning of my four-day weekend that comes after a ten day work week. As usual, I worked for a good chunk of the morning, then ran errands. Then, we had an appointment for Nora's [cough] 18-month well child check at one o'clock. Yes, Nora is in fact 21 months old. You may put this in my permanent record.

So, when I scheduled this, I thought that 1:00 would be a great time to do a doctor's appointment. Knowing intimately how a doctor's office operates, I figured that we would wait for less time if we had the first appointment of the afternoon. Always a good thing with a toddler, right? Last night, I realized my miscalculation. Nora's typical afternoon involves a delicious and nutritious lunch, then a 45 minute blatant refusal to nap before finally crashing on her mat at approximately...12:45.

I was taking a ticking time bomb into a public place.

Where strangers were going to interact with her.

Then, give her shots.

Oh, God.

In a panic, I packed, well, everything in the diaper bag. I had three different snacks, milk, four books, the monkey, crayons, paper, diapers. I got a bad case of torticollis carrying that bag, but we could have survived nuclear winter if you had thrown in some gas masks and a lead suit.

So, of course, because I was prepared, Nora fell right to sleep and had gotten a solid hour nap when I arrived. I woke up a sweet, agreeable child who was more than happy to go meet some delightful new folks over at the clinic. We waited just long enough in the waiting room for Nora to charm the pants off an elderly man in a wheelchair. (To be fair, he was pre-charmed. He was demented and his first wife's name had been Nora.)

Nora thought the scale was new fun kind of ride, but that having her height or temperature taken was somewhat suspect. The nurse kindly checked Baby's temperature first. Sheer genius. By the time we hit the exam room, Nora was measuring Baby's head circumference and demanding that Dr. Dan look in his ears and listen to his heart.

She demonstrated, nay flaunted, her knowledge of animal sounds and body parts and was deemed Perfectly Normal by Dr. Dan. Hooray!

We barely waited at all, rendering my survival pack useless, except as a talisman. And since Nora only got a flu shot, she wasn't even crotchety when we got home.

Nora decided after an hour or so of books that it was time for another nap. While she was sacked out, I sacrificed the pumpkins from our fall display for tasty, tasty soup. And toasted pumpkin seeds.

So the following picture is Nora in her trashed room where we've been playing all afternoon, cheeks stuffed with pumpkin seeds and apple cider checking out the box that the Motrin I gave her before her shots came in. Boxes rule. What can I say?


PS- Height 32.5 inches (50%ile)
Weight 27.9 lbs (75%ile)

1 comment:

MJT said...

As you explained packing the diaper bag, I had to laugh: "Just in case."

This is a very amusing post. Glad to see that Nora is thriving!