My goal when I left the house, with all members of the A team, was to simply survive the doctor's appointment. There are some advantages to scheduling appointments back to back for A1 and A2 but there are also some obvious disadvantages. The biggest problem is that they are both there competing for the attention of our beloved pediatrician, Dr. Jones. The girls adore him and enjoy entertaining him. He has such a good rapport with the girls and he seems to enjoy engaging them in conversation.
Typically our appointments are wild adventures. The girls crawl around the room like caged animals. They are on the table, off the table, on the floor, on the stool, on the chair, on the scale, on the table, off the table, on the table, half off the table and back on the table. They are both doing this in opposite rotations so I am constantly grabbing or catching one of them. I usually work up a sweat by the end of the appointment. When they aren't being animals they are being comedians. Answering questions wrong or in silly voices, making up songs and dances, or just being themselves.
Before our appointment today I told them my expectations:
1. Sit still.
2. Answer all the questions truthfully.
3. Try not to sing or be silly.
4. Let each girl have her own turn. Try not to interrupt.
5. Be good.
I bribed the girls with bagels after the appointment if they followed my rules...
They were strangely quiet when the appointment started. One of those quiets that will surely be followed by an embarrassingly loud outburst in the very near future. I kept checking to make sure they were still breathing. Dr. Jones came in the room before the girls even had a chance to get wild and begin there on the table, off the table routine.
A1 only answered a few questions with false off the wall answers, like telling him she was a cheerleader and played football. What!?! Her shinning moment was when we were talking about the headaches she was having that make her vomit. He turned the discussion to A1 and said, "Where are you getting these headaches?" without skipping a beat she said, "From my mom." Dr. Jones really chuckled at this A1ism. She had overheard us talking at home about my migraines and how she probably got them because I have them. Give her a few more years then I am sure I will be giving her headaches in the same way she will be giving my headaches.
A2 had a little bit more trouble answering questions than A1 did. She doesn't know how to spell her name out loud. She doesn't know the names of the letters or numbers. She learns at a different pace than A2 did. She is very self conscious about this and will shut down when we try to work on academic things. Dr. Jones seemed a little concerned about this but I was as cool as any special eduction teaching mom could be. I shrugged it off because she will get it when she gets it but we should look at all the things she can do... she knows her shapes and colors. She can write her name. She loves to draw. She can skip (kind of). She is an amazing big sister. Besides that I already have her diagnosed...
The girls managed to follow most of my rules. I didn't leave the appointment feeling like I was going to break down in tears. We celebrated with a bagel, after I went back home to get my debit card that A3 took out of my purse and I put on the table instead of back in my wallet. We celebrated not only following the rules, but also being healthy and happy.
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