I thought before I took a deep breath and started rushing around to get ready for this afternoon I'd take a moment while I had my cup of tea and update from the weekend.
Friday: Tristyn and Maia had their yearly physicals at the doctor's. Now that I am a few days past that appointment, I can truly appreciate the good laugh it was able to generate. (more about that in a moment). Health wise, both kids are good. Tristyn grew a great many inches, Maia not so many (not a big surprise, she's small for her age). It was suggested that I take Maia to the eye doctor's to have him check her eyes, because on the little test they do at the doctor's, her right one was coming up a little bad. Unfortunately, this doesn't surprise me much; she seems to be my mirror image in so many ways--my right eye is my 'bad' eye too. =( Tristyn had better than 20/20 vision. Hurrah! For now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Anyhow, back to that funny moment. Really it was 50 minutes. Tristyn and Maia each needed 2 shots. When the nurse went to go fetch the stuff she needed, Tristyn and Maia broke down in tears. When the nurse came back in, Tristyn collected himself quite manfully, climbed back up on the table, reached for one of my hands and took his shots like a champ. Not one tear. Not one whimper. Nothing. I thought this would be encouraging to Maia who was a mess on the chair behind me.
Nope.
The nurse told me to hold her on my lap while she did the deed and as I reached for Maia, Maia launched herself on the floor, started screaming and latched onto the leg of the examination table. She writhed on the floor like one possessed. By the time, I got her in my arms and I sat down the nurse was gone! I held Maia's bucking body for a few minutes waiting for the nurse to come back. Maia resorted to kicking and pinching me (I didn't let go) and was screaming so loud that I seriously thought she was going to burst some blood vessels in her head because her head was turning plum purple. She screeched out she had to pee and I gave in to this tactic (scary head color, remember?) and we walked down the hall to the bathroom. While Maia was in there, I asked the nurse why she left. The nurse said that she couldn't give Maia her shots until she calmed down.
!!!!! Clearly, this woman could not possibly have children of her own. As calmly as I could, I told her that there was no way (in hell, I added that in thought only) that Maia would possibly calm down so long as she knew she was getting shots. This woman huffily said that she'd have to get another woman to do it then. Fine, I said, already planning to request a different nurse the next time we came back (She really hadn't been very friendly earlier, either, when the kids asked her what she was putting around their arm (blood pressure cuff))
The bathroom door opened and Maia was refreshed for a new battle. I called her out and went inside to reach for her hand. Maia hit the floor and wrapped her little arms around the toilet bowl! I had to resort to scare tactics and walk off so she couldn't see me. Maia falls for this one every time; so great is her fear at being left behind (which has never happened) and ran out of the bathroom screaming Mummy! This got her all the way back to the door of the exam room where once again she flung herself on the floor. I tried to pick her up and succeeded partly--but I couldn't get her inside the door. She had placed each one of her little feet firmly on the door jamb to either side of me and I couldn't pull her in. Tristyn, a silent spectator through all of this, says from behind me 'Whoa.' Looking down at Maia in my arms, sort of, I had a moment of somewhat hysterical giggles. They were enough to startle Maia into releasing her feet from the door jamb and I got her inside and in my lap.
The new nurse came in, very business-like, arranged Maia's arms the best way for me to get a good grip on them and then held Maia's legs. Maia's eyes nearly bulged out when the syringe came towards her thigh but before she could even choke out a sound the first one was done. She took a sharp intake of breath (in preparation to scream, I think) but before anything else could come out the second one was done too. The nurse left the room and I calmed Maia down. Heck, I needed calmed down at this point too! Tristyn piped up at this moment and said 'Maia, you looked like that bad kid I saw in this movie this one time.' No kidding, Tristyn! It was called Poltergist!
Much later, after the kids had left, Rick and I took a long bike ride through Frick Park. We took part of a trail that I hadn't biked on and it was just what I needed to relax after the afternoon. After the park, we went home to wash up and then we went to Dick's Sporting Goods to check out the tennis racquets. We ended up getting some raquets and a whole lot of tennis balls!
Saturday: I got to try out my new racquet on Saturday morning when Rick and I went to the tennis courts at Koenig field. We played for about 90 minutes before we called it quits. At home, we exchanged the tennis raquets for the dogs and we took them to Frick Park for a long walk. (Forgive my abruptness here, I just figure after the long description about the doctor's that I'd keep everything else in brief) Early that evening, Rick was very nice and took me to the Indian restaurant for dinner. He has found something there that he likes and isn't too spicy--so I think this is why he doesn't mind taking me there every once in a while. Then, we left Oakland and drove the rest of the way downtown to park the car and walk the rest of the way to Heinz Field for the Pitt Game. For Rick's birthday present in March, I got him season tickets to the Pitt Games and this was the first one we went to. We had great seats.
Rick took this picture with his cell phone. It's a little blurry, but we were in about the fifth row back. The images on the 'tron were actually smaller than the guys right in front of us!
Sunday: We played tennis again in the late morning and then I rushed around madly trying to get everything I needed for today from the stores. We had dinner at Rick's mum's house and then we brought the dogs home so we could go see a movie. Rick chose 'Superbad' which I was a bit skeptical of when I heard what it was about but it was actually very funny and I enjoyed it a lot. =)
