HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

There is nothing sweeter than looking at your daughters in the rear view mirror and seeing them sitting in their car seats next to each other...holding hands. ♥  Today was Jessa's 3 year well-child checkup, and on the way to the pediatrician's office, the girls were sitting in the back of the van holding hands like best friends. It really all started this morning when I let them choose what clothes they wanted to wear today for our outing. They decided they wanted to dress it up a bit! They looked so cute I had to take some photos.

Loved watching them get excited about accessorizing too. They both chose necklaces to wear and Jessa, of course, needed her sunglasses. Classic!

At the Dr.'s office we waited, and waited, and waited, and oi vey waited some more. For those of you who don't make regular visits to the pediatrician anymore, let me just say right here for the record, that removing all of the toys and books at the office, while it certainly does decrease the likelihood that my child might contract a sickness from the germs transferring from sick child to object to my child, it also removes any stimulus WHATSOEVER for my kiddos to be distracted by or entertained by making the wait that much longer for the mommy in question. Note to self: bring a distraction next time.

We honestly waited so long that it would have been enough to push even the nicest mother, say, Mother Teresa, to the brink. Luckily, we were blessed to be put in a room that had an alphabet border where the letters were formed by the objects they represented. So about 5 minutes into the waiting in the exam room, I got the idea to play a game of Eye Spy. I asked Hollyn if she could find the letter T it looks like a tree. Then she would run around the room looking for a tree. "Can you find an I it looks like an ice-cream cone?"

It was very fun - and I was feeling proud of myself for making up a game on the spot like that, until we had gone through the alphabet 3 times. Then they were bored with it. So I had to break out the treat I had brought as bribery incentive for them to be good. 3 seconds later and the fruit snacks were completely devoured. Now what? Gave in and handed out the sippy cups full of apple juice. 3 minutes later and the juice was completely chugged down. Now what? Let's play hand games. Clapping Patterns. Here we go and repeat after me. 10 minutes later Mommy has a fierce migraine coming on and is saying while clapping, "It doesn't pay to be early! It doesn't pay to be early!"  Well, I can report that the Dr. did finally enter the room, and we found out that Jessa is now in the 38 percentile for her growth. She is a little peanut compared to my other GIANT children. lol! Next it was time for the Dr. to perform his exam - Jessa Li was GREAT! No fussing, no panicking. Things were going AWESOME!

Were.

I guess you know where this is headed.

So the Doc says to me that Jessa needs a shot today. She's been slowly making up for the vaccines she missed the first year of life, so today was a booster shot. She was surprisingly calm when he said this. After he left the room and while we were waiting for the dreaded nurse with the needle to come, I explained to her that they had to give her some medicine. I said the medicine doesn't go in your mouth though; it goes in your leg. I said it will feel like a pinch, but you can hold Mommy's hand and squeeze it or blow on your finger to relieve the anxiousness. She was fairly stoic. She had no real emotion and was just sorta sitting there waiting for whatever it was that was going to happen to happen. I mentioned casually to Hollyn that I really needed her to sit still on the chair and be quiet. We waited some more. We opened the 3 books in the room. Read and re-read. Waited some more. Then I mentioned more clearly to Hollyn that I really needed her to sit in her chair until this was all over, and then we could go see Daddy at school! Finally, the nurse enters.

She tells me to sit on the patient exam table and hold Jessa in my lap. I think it's weird, but I comply. (I mean why can't I just sit in the chair and hold her in my lap in the chair?) Anyway. I move to the table, and as soon as I sit my hiney on the table...Hollyn begins to TOTALLY FREAK OUT. I mean full blown tantrum, screaming, crying, stomping - the works. I was so confused. I expected that from the one on my lap. But she was a CHAMP. She let the nurse give her the shot, and she didn't cry at all! When the band-aid went on, Hollyn kicked it up another notch. I smiled weakly at the nurse while begging, pleading for Hollyn to stop. The nurse didn't say a thing. She just gave it and ran left. Who could blame her.

When I asked Hollyn what on earth was the matter, she starts screaming at me, "I want one! I want one!" She screamed it over and over. The whole time I was putting Jessa's clothes back on Hollyn is completely loosing it.

Through the pounding migraine, I finally thought to ask, "Want what?!?"

"I want a shot! I want a band-aid!"

Seriously?!? What child SAYS that?!? Un-believe-able! The daughter who is having the shot is acting like it's a walk in the park and the daughter who is NOT having the shot is actually doing the tantruming and throwing of the royal hissy fit because she is JEALOUS of NOT having a SHOT!

Please tell me. Who in there right mind could have seen that one coming? Who?!

I'm sure the folks in the hallway totally thought Hollyn was the one getting the "pinch" by the way she was carrying on! The only thing that made her stop was me telling her that she wasn't going to be able to get a sticker if she didn't calm down. She managed to stifle her fit, but not her disappointment. Her head down and her pouty lip sticking out for all to see. Crazy-craziness! I am still shaking my head.

Jessa just looked at her and said, "Hollyn, you NO wanna one! It hurt you!"

To which Hollyn replies, "Jessa, you NOT my mommy!" 

You'll remember on the way there...they were holding hands. 

Oh the drama in the life of a three-year-old!