An Apple a Day...

Today we went to the doctor, or should I say we spent most of the morning sitting in the doctor's office. It is amazing how a 10 minute appointment takes an hour or longer from the moment you step into the waiting room until the moment you leave. We started off the morning going for Lexi's kindergarten physical and ended up staying longer so that AJ could also be seen by the doctor. Lexi passed her physical with flying colors. She has finally made it out of the 40th percentile in weight to the 75th percentile and she is now close to the 100th percentile for height. Perhaps we should be pursuing basketball instead of soccer. The appointment went well until it was time for her immunizations. As luck would have it, they just added a new round of immunizations for 5 year olds, so she had 4 shots this morning. You would think after two children and numerous visits to the immunization nurse, I would be better at this, but I wasn't. It is bad enough I had to stand there and physically restrain my daughter while she is stuck four times, but combined with the shrieking and tears, I almost ended up in a puddle on the floor. I'm not sure which emotion was stronger, the guilt for putting my daughter through such pain or the sadness for not being able to take away the pain. I would have gladly endured it for her if it was possible. She is already talking about how she doesn't want to go through that again and I don't have the heart to tell her we have to go back in 6 months for her booster. Of course AJ was very perplexed by Lexi's behavior and wanted to why the lady made sissy cry. Then for the rest of the visit, he kept saying "no shots for AJ mommy". Luckily, AJ is finished with his immunizations until he starts kindergarten, which by then, it will probably be twice as many and 10 times more painful. AJ's physical went by quickly as it was a mere formality for preschool. It probably took her longer to fill out the form than to check him over. He is still in the 40th percentile for height and weight, but in keeping with the strong Harris gene (at least for me and Daddy), he has a big noggin...75th percentile. Luckily, he doesn't look like a bobble head doll.