My Friend, the Voice in the Wall

Yesterday was the big double pediatrician appointment. It worked out since Zachary’s 3-year checkup and Liam’s 4-month checkup happened right around the same time. Thankfully, I don’t think their appointments will line up like that anymore. It seemed like a good idea at the time – take them in at the same time and save myself a trip. But I was exhausted by the time we left. Our appointment was at 2:00, and it was about 3:50 by the time we left. Apparently there was some sort of “glitch” in their new scheduling system which added to our lengthy time there. Thankfully both guys did pretty well. Neither of them particularly enjoyed the shots (who does?), but they were both fairly quick to get over it. Lucky for Zachary all he got was one shot and the toe prick. Poor Liam had 4 shots and an oral vaccine. I always wonder why they can’t put them all in one – guess that’s why I’m in business and not a doctor.

While we were waiting for the doctor to come in, I had Liam sitting on the exam table so he could look at himself in the mirror. Zachary was sitting on a little ledge about a foot off the floor that was next to the window. All of a sudden, he goes, “Do you hear that?” There was a little voice saying “Hello? Hello?” I thought it was Zachary trying to be funny, but it turns out, it was a kid in the room next door. Apparently if you are near the window, you can have a conversation with someone in the next room. Here’s a quick rundown of how this went down:

Voice: Hello?
Z: Hi! I’m waiting for Dr. Fedack.
Voice: We’re waiting for the doctor too.
Z: You can come in here if you want!
Voice: No, I have to stay in my own room.
Z: Oh…But I can’t find you on my GPS!
Voice: Are you sick?
Z: No.
Voice: Is anyone in your family sick?
Z: No.
Voice: My baby sister is sick – she has a fever.
Z: My baby brother is baby Liam!
Me: OK Zachary – that’s enough.
Z: But I need to talk to him…
Me: No you don’t – just come over here.
Z: But I NEED to…he’s my friend…

So we did all survive the trip, but I’m pretty happy knowing that from now on it will probably be one kid at a time. Now we are in major trip preparation mode. It's much more stressful taking a trip without the kids, in my opinion. At least when you're taking them with you, you know exactly what they need. But when you're leaving them at home, you have to make sure everything is ready & spelled out for the people watching them. It's not like leaving them for 2 hours so you can go see a movie. So that has added to the stress of packing & everything else we'd normally be doing before leaving on a trip.