Martinez, Party of Four

I have come to realize that I am indeed insane. This week, I had the bright idea to schedule Ava and Vinny together for their wellness (AKA immunization) visits. I have been a mother for eight and a half years. I should know better than to think that I had enough magic to pull off the soothing/straight-jacket-choke hold during immunizations for TWO children by myself. Ava, the super-awesome reading 42#, 42inch 90th percentile 4 year old, decided that she would go first to "show Vinny how brave" she could be. She was brave. She sat quietly as the first needle approached her little thigh. Then............all hell broke lose. She started screaming as the nurse jabbed in the vax. Then I had to sort-of restrain her hands and distract her for the second shot, all the while holding Vinny, who has become incredibly strong and does not like to be held. The second shot was an MMR which burns like a mofo. So, of course she started the hippopotamus. She just kept screaming "I'M NOT BRAVE" and any attempt on my part to reassure her that she was, in fact, brave only increased the decibel of the hippopotamus. The hippopotamus scares Vinny so he was already screaming before I even got into position to restrain him for his two shots. I put him on my lap and got ready. As soon as the first needle struck, he flung his head back and gave me a little fat lip. Vinny, the non-verbal going to speech therapy, 24#, 35 inch, off the chart for height 19 month old, only cried for a few seconds. We high-tailed it out of there and went to get some lollys to make us feel better. Oh the drama.

So, since that was SO MUCH FUN, I went ahead and kept the dental appointements I made back in NOVEMBER for myself, Emma and Ava for today at 12:45. You know, when my husband is at work, which means I had to take Vinny, too. I was so anxious about it turning into a three-ring circus that I probably could have used some xanax. But, since I was driving (and I don't have a prescription for xanax) I just drank a few cups of coffee instead. (Notice the pattern of poor decision making?) Lucky for everyone (or maybe just highly intuitive of my kids who must have recognized that if mommy lost it today she was going to go away and live in a special hospital for a few weeks) my children were absolute angels for the entire THREE HOURS that we were at the dentist. I went first, while Emma quietly did her homework in the waiting room and Ava and Vinny watched Dora on the TV in the exam room. While I was getting my deep cleaning, they called Emma back. She went alone into the chair on the opposite side of the partition from me. I didn't hear a peep out of her. Then Ava went when Emma was finished, while I took Vinny to the waiting room to walk around a bit. It was her first time going to the dentist and every time I went back to check on her, she said "Mom, I'm fine. Just wait for me out there." I got several compliments on their behavior and cuteness from the doctor, staff and other patients. Which reminds me, someone recently told me that because I don't spank my kids, they are probably brats. When I replied as nicely as I could muster that no, they were actually well-behaved, she said "To you maybe, but other people probably think they are brats." Nope, you're wrong. Neener-neener.

As their reward for being so well-behaved, we took them to Freddy's for custard. They are such great kids :)



**Oh, and a quick shout-out to Dawn and Beth. I picked up this new background and the bookshelf from your blogs :)