Feb 11, 2008

Five Sticks and a Pack of Cookies...

Well kids, we're down to less than two weeks until the big cross-country move. The better part of our house is in boxes, and for the life of me I can't remember where I packed His Highness's new shoes. Didn't think I'd need them. Technically we don't need them, but they would come in handy. Ah well, such is life...

...Ended up mopping the kitchen floor this morning. You may or may not be aware that my dog has a propensity for eating cat poop. Long story short, I found cat poop residue on the floor, which I decided was entirely unacceptable, hence the mopping. Guess what else we found out? With his chubby little feet, His Highness has zero ability to remain upright on a wet floor. Poor guy...after his refusing to leave the kitchen, and falling three times, and screaming three times, I plopped him on a chair, still screaming, and finished the floor before I carried him over the evil slippery floor to surfaces with greater traction...

...This afternoon His Highness had quite the ordeal--we took care of his 12-month vaccinations...which, due to our Christmas vacation and various minor sicknesses, ended up being the nearly-14-month vaccinations, but whatever. The 12-month set is no fun. Even the pediatrician said to just plan for a miserable time and get it over with. So I waited until the end of the day, so we could just go home afterward. First stop was the immunization room, where he got 4 shots. I have issues with needles, so the biggest challenge was not projecting my own fears onto him. I was very brave, let me tell ya. I think His Highness was more upset about being held down than the shots themselves, but to his credit, the vaccination tech worked quickly. Two in each leg--boom-boom, boom-boom, done. We grabbed a Cars sticker on the way out. To make sure there were no immediate reactions, we had to stay in the clinic waiting area for 20 minutes, so we passed the time by getting his blood drawn. Hey, why not, right? No, not really...I mean, we had the blood drawn, but it's part of the 12-month workup. I have no idea what they're looking for, but I certainly hope they find it. Or don't find it. Whichever is better.

My issue with needles...10 times worse with intravenous ones. But again, the lab techs were fantastic. They sat us in a big chair, His Highness on my lap. They folded down a flat arm-like platform in front of us, took his left arm, and held it out face-up just like any other guy giving blood. It was cute, in a very strange sort of way. My job was to bear-hug him and keep his right arm out of the way. I wanted to watch, but in the end I had to look away. And it was over in no time. And then I decided a reward was in order, so we set off in search of cookies to munch on for the remaining 10 minutes of "wait time" before we headed home.

Vaccines are pretty controversial in some circles, but thus far we've followed the recommended schedule. I'm a believer in most of them, and neither of our families have any history of complications, and my hour or so of online research actually made me lean toward them more, so other than watching for the rare freak-occurances of severe side effects, we're fairly confident there won't be any problems. We debated about the chickenpox one...it's strange to now be vaccinating our kids against a sickness that was in some ways a rite of passage for us. But then again I'm sure that's how some of our parents felt about vaccinating us against measles, mumps, etc...something we don't think twice about now (well, I don't anyway). To be perfectly honest though, I wasn't bothered enough to consider foregoing the chickenpox one, so we did it. No biggie...

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