A Kind Nurse and Strong Chicken Eggs

 

  A was snoozing peacefully in her car seat. I wished I didn't have to wake her, but the doctor's appointment was scheduled to start in just a few minutes. She woke up quite cheerfully and held my hand all the way into the clinic. Gracia woke up as soon as we got inside. The lady that checked us in wondered if I could fill out some additional paperwork. A, Gracia in her car seat, the tablet with the questionare, and I all settled into seats to wait for the nurse. Fish swam across a screen in the waiting area. This intreagued A. I answered a few questions and then got Gracia out of her car seat. She has been spitting up recently and I wanted her held up so she could burp if she needed to. 

  A happily bounced on the seat next to me and the questions kept coming on the tablet. Finally I stopped trying to answer them. I needed to look at the girls' paperwork that was at home because I couldn't remember which relatives had which health issues. Deanne answered as soon as I called her and she started rummaging through the paperwork to help me with the questionnaire. She wasn't sure what she was looking for.

  It was in this moment that the nurse called A's name. She waited patiently as I juggled baby, A's hand, my phone, and the diaper bag. She offered to carry Gracia's car seat and the tablet. As we walked, I told Deanne we could talk later and if she couldn't find the info, I would fill it in another time. 

  We came around the corner and it was time for A to step on the scale. The scale she had refused to step foot on last time we came here. I tried all the tactics to show her it's not scary. She clung to Gracia's teddy bear and refused to budge. The nurse kindly mentioned that she could weigh her in the room instead. In the room, I thought, where the small scale was even harder for A to be pursuaded to sit on than the first. I told the nurse she probably wouldn't be willing to use that one either. It was then that the nurse suggested that I could weigh myself then hold A and get weighed together. It was like magic. A watched the numbers curiously and we got an accurate weight.

  The nurse had offered to hold Gracia while we got the weight. She fiddled with paper and pencil while also holding my baby. When the weight was jotted down we continued on to the room both of our arms full. I chuckled and said "You must be a mom" She laughed and replied that yes, she is.

  In the room we needed a place for Gracia to play, and guess what this mama forgot? A blanket for Gracia to play on. The nurse happily offered one and in a minute came back with a fuzzy pink blanket. She said that she keeps it in her desk drawer for times like these. Deanne texted me a picture of A's health history and the nurse wrote everything down for me so that I didn't need to finish my questionnaire. 

  Doctor appointments are really one of A's least favorite things in the world. She stiffens up anytime a doctor comes close to her. She wiggles and squirms and screeches when they listen to her heart and peer into her ears. I'm thankful for kind nurses who have so much patience with us. I'm also thankful for a healthy squiggly 1 year old girl who can't step foot on a scale. 

   As we left the appointment we walked past another mom with two small children. She was trying to pursuade her toddler to step on the scale. I smiled and told her how we had accomplished it. 

  P.S. How do I know we have unusually strong chicken eggs? Picture with me: A, in her pink rubber boots and crazy curls gathering eggs as Allen watches. Plunk, plunk, plunk, plunk. She then stomps across the yard toward the house, four brown eggs bouncing along with her in an ice cream bucket. At the door, her bucket teeters auminously on it's side as A lifts her feet over the ledge, first one, then the other. When she arrives in the kitchen, she thrusts the eggs one by one into the egg carton that Allen holds out for her. Not one of them broken. We either have a careful toddler or very strong chicken eggs.