Don't Cry for Me...

This morning I had my once-every-4-year appointment with the dermatologist. I like to be sure that I haven't completely ruined my skin with the amount of tanning I do. The tanning begins once the weather starts warming up. Any amount of sun time I can get I'll take and it only increases come summer. Luckily there's a lot of Italian blood in me, from both sides of the family, and thankfully it allows me and my siblings to brown instead of turning lobster-red back to white.

Hubby had a meeting to go to and couldn't stay home to watch Claire. Uh-oh. See, Claire doesn't like going to the doctors. A trip usually runs like this: happily we skip into the waiting room. She plays, I point out objects for her to identify, people cheerily say "Hello" or "Goodbye" to her depending on which direction they're heading. Then the nurse calls Claire's name. Suddenly a look of apprehension appears on her face. Once we are escorted into our designated room, eye's clamp shut tight, tears form, mouth opens up wide and the shrill cry of a toddler escapes and knocks down anything within a 50 foot radius. It's intense, which is why I limit her doctor visits as much as possible. I don't have the will power to deal with it.

So Claire was with me. All went well up until we entered "the last room on the left." The nurse walked in, the door shut and the wailing began. I managed to soothe her with a stick of cheese (thinking ahead, I was), but that only worked in spurts. Seeing me undress and put on the dressing gown set off another series of water works (and b/c I know I don't have my original pre-baby body, that did not make me feel very good). I sat up on the table, more water works. The doctor inspecting my arms while Claire was on my lap, again... the crying. The inspection lasted all of 3 minutes and throughout it all, Claire refused to stop crying for more than 15 seconds. Incredible.

Once the doctor left and I started to dress, Claire kindly pointed out where all of my clothes were in the room. I think she feared that something else would happen so I better get my jacket on now because we needed it to go outside. Get it mom. OUTSIDE. AWAY FROM THIS ROOM AND THIS PLACE. GET A MOVE ON WOMAN!!!

Next time hubby and I have a schedule conflict, he can bring Claire to his meeting. I think she'll have a less stressful time there.

Huggable

We're standing in the hallway. I'm bending over and down to tell Claire something. Because it is warmer today than yesterday, I've opted to wear a t-shirt instead of another long-sleeved one. Spring is right around the corner! As I'm talking with Claire, She notices my bare arm and begins to slap it. "Arm. That's my arm!" Claire looks up at me and smiles. Then she grabs my arm and gives it a big, squeezable hug. I hug her back. After she's done hugging that one arm she runs over to the other and does the same thing. Again, I hug her in return. Could she get any cuter?

Taking the Lead

Yesterday was so beautiful outside: mid-60's, sunny skies. A much anticipated day since we've been buried in 5 feet of snow for the past month! The warm weather meant that we could all be outside and not be up to our knees in snow or covered in mud from the snow melt. YAY! So I took them (dog and toddler) out for a walk and ended up hanging out at a tot lot that was spacious enough for Ollie to roam and explore, which also had the most awesome sandbox with sticks and trucks for Claire to go mental over.

We must have been at the lot for about 40 minutes. I can tell that Ollie's patience was wearing thin. Suddenly I look up to find Ollie back on the trail, walking away, yet looking back saying "Yeah. So this is boring and I'm no longer waiting. See you at home." What? I'm now having a Family Guy moment where Ollie is Brian. He was so determined to get going that it took me about a minute of calling him back before he decided his life would be better if he listened. Except he couldn't just come back towards us. No. Ollie had to make certain I knew how displeased he was by lowering his head, slowly turning around and heading back in our direction. And don't think he didn't sigh several times either when I was having Claire wrap things up with the sandbox and sticks. He wanted to make it clear that this was not his idea of getting out of the house.

I'm so glad he can't speak.