#27- Fear

fear

Fear is a natural state unless you are a teenage boy.  Children fear being alone, twentysomething’s fear the unpredictability of their future.  How will I pay the bills? Is that car going to crash into me?

And being a parent has its own set of fears.  When my baby falls, will he get hurt? Will my tween get bullied in school?  Is my teenager going to get in trouble drinking?  Am I teaching this little being to grow to be a happy, productive member of society?  Will my kids stay healthy? Will I be around as long as they need me?  Am I teaching them little nuggets of wisdom that will help them as they journey through life?

Tangent warning (It will all come back around.  I promise):

Today as I was driving with my kids, I saw a car with a tire that was ready to pop.  The kids asked me why I pulled over and let that car pass me and why I slowed down.  I told them that I could see that car had a problem with the tire and if the tire popped, the car would be difficult to control.  I wanted to stay away from the car if that happened.

As I said it, I heard my dad’s voice.  From the time I was small, he was always talking to me about how to drive safely.  If you can’t see a truck’s mirrors, they can’t see you.  Bridges freeze first.  Tractor-trailers cannot accelerate or brake as fast as cars.  He always passed along that advice any chance he got, and I know it has helped me avoid a few accidents over the years.

We are nearing what would have been his 69th birthday, and next month will be the 16th anniversary of the heart attack that took him from us.

Back to Fear

My dad passed when he was just 53.  He never met any of his children’s spouses or any of his grandchildren.  When I am 53, my son will be 16 and my daughter will be 14.  As an old mom, this thought haunts me all the time.

What can I do about genetics?  I take my cholesterol pills, I have never even tried a cigarette, and never will.  I’m exercising regularly and trying to eat healthy on a tight budget in an effort to lose some extra pounds.  I sing every day too – it reduces stress.  As my doctor bluntly told me, “After 40, you really can’t fight genetics and an unhealthy lifestyle.”

When I don’t want to exercise, I look at my kids.  I know that the health and fitness experts would say I should do it for me, but I have to say, these two cutie pies are pretty good motivation.

More Fear

On Black Friday, I skipped the shopping and went for my yearly mammogram.  I got a call from the doctor late that afternoon.  There is a change from last year in my left breast.

“It is probably just a cyst,” he said.  “But let’s get a few more images to be sure.”

I have my follow up next week.  Four weeks after the first.  For these four weeks, I have been trying to hide the fear of what this could be while creating a happy holiday season for my children.  There are days I am successful.  There are days I am not. The day we put up the tree, we realized most of our lights were ruined by a flood in the basement a few weeks earlier.  I somewhat manically marched everyone down to CVS at 7:00 at night so we could all have that Christmas happiness in the house right now (Dammit!).

As a music teacher, I am also right in the middle of concert season.  I consider these weeks with my students to be the weeks where lasting memories are made.  In any given year, it is a challenge to calmly teach and encourage them while they are Santa-Crazy and Snow-Bonkers.  But I work hard at it, and I think I’m pretty good at it.  This has not been any given year, but I still try to remember that these kids deserve that happy memory and it is my job to help them get there.

I have waited with the fear for three weeks, and there is just one week to go.  The friends and family I have told have been incredibly supportive.  Some reminded me that they would have brought me in right away if it looked really bad and others saying that cysts are common in well-endowed women (damn big ta-tas).

And in this week there are presents to wrap, concerts to run, cookies to bake and holiday merriment to be had.  The fear is there, but so is life.  And I guess that’s really the point.

 

 

Photo by RalphArvesen

Teacher Gifts: What to Get Your Caretaker this Christmas

teachers gifts

Are you wondering what to get for your child’s teacher this Christmas?  Teacher’s don’t expect gifts, and some states (like the one I teach in) put limits on how much you can accept as a gift.  But if you are looking for ideas for teacher gifts, I’ll put a few out there for you.

Something Homemade

Two weeks ago, I was putting up my Christmas tree with my family, and I found an assortment of Christmas ornaments from different students over the years.  Angel wings from paper plates, colored balls made with old crayons, race cars from miniature candy bars.  Some of these ornaments are 15 years old, but they still make me smile when I think of those kids who took the time to make something for me.

If you are giving your caretaker a tasty treat, be sure to have the kids help.  Cooking is such a great life skill for girls and boys.  You can teach them about different states of matter making candy molds.  You can teach them about mixing the dry and wet ingredients in your favorite cookie recipe.  Families can teach kids decorating skills sprinkling miniature candy canes and snowflakes on a batch of brownies.  We are teachers.  Oddly enough, we will prefer the sweet treat that shows the learning process over the perfect, decadent treat you put together yourself or bought from your local baker.

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

Every year, I see hundreds of memes about the long hours that teachers work and how much work they bring home.  Do you ever wonder how they do it?  Coffee!

Trust me, unless your child’s teacher is expecting, they will greatly appreciate a gift card to a coffee shop, or a cute mug.  Again, I still have all those old mugs from kids over the years, and I still remember exactly which kid they came from.

Here are a few cute examples:

The traditional coffee mug:


The travel mug for a teacher with a long commute:


Something trendy:

Supplies for the Classroom

Another thing you hear about all the time is how much money teacher’s spend on their classrooms.  Personally, I probably spend $40 a year just on tissues alone.  Do families spend lots of money on school supplies too?  Yes, they do.  But there is always a gap.  Kids test how short they can sharpen a pencil.  Kids forget to put the caps on glue sticks.  Kids make cartoon flip books out of the pack of post-its that are supposed to be used for morning meetings.  And let’s be honest – a lot of this happens in December when the kids have Santa on the brain.  Even more of it happens in January when the kids have indoor recess.

Here are a few ideas:

If your child is a sneezer:


If your child likes all the pretty colors:


And if your child likes to test the limits of a pencil’s usability:


Also, if your child likes to test the limits of a pencil’s usability:

If your child loses the marker caps at home, they probably do at school too.


Whatever present you decide to give your child’s teacher, more than anything, make it personal.  A sweet note or something that truly reflects your child will never be forgotten.

Photo by andeecollard

#26- Things My Kids Say- Funny Fall Quotes

kid quotes

There are so many times when I have to bite my tongue to not laugh at my kids.  Girlie is such a little parrot and Sweet Boy has such a sense of comic timing.  They crack me up all the time – even when it’s not appropriate.  Here are a few of my favorite funny quotes from the last few months.

  1. Sweet Boy:  “Great Gram is my honey.”  My grandmother is 97.  Having a 4-year-old boy call her his honey just makes her day every time we go for a visit.
  2. Girlie:  Carrying the frozen waffles in the grocery store.  “I need to put these in the carriage.  My back hurts.”  Usually, it’s me putting her down because my back hurts.  Seriously, I have a collective 85 pounds of kids.
  3. Girlie:  “Can I exercise with you tonight?  Can I giddy-up too?”  I’ve been doing the Country Heat videos on Beachbody On Demand.  She likes to join in.
  4. Sweet Boy:  “Daddy, look!  It’s a party bus.”  This was my fault.  He saw a shuttle bus one day and asked me what kind of vehicle it was.  I couldn’t think of the right name, so I told him it was a bus for taking people around for parties.  Boy, did that shock my husband to hear that.
  5. Girlie: “I’m so sad Mr. Pumpkin had to go back to his home.”  When our jack-o-lantern rotted out, I threw it in the compost pile after the kids went to bed.  They realized it the next morning, so I told her that Mr. Pumpkin went back to his home to help new pumpkins grow next year. She still tells me how sad she is once a week.
  6. Sweet Boy: “That was awful!!! Don’t ever do that again.”  This is what he told the nurse on flu shot day.  I don’t know many 4-year-old boys that use the word awful.  He just sounds like a little old man.
  7. Girlie: “Can we open our el-phant calendar?”  We’re on day 10 and she hasn’t quite sounded out Advent yet.
  8. Sweet Boy:  I started the Country Heat program after finishing the You V2 program.  My husband did not like the leader in the first program, so when I started the second, I told him that the music wouldn’t be as good, but there would be more eye candy.  Sweet Boy responded, “I want candy!”
  9. Girlie:  “Can we go see our Halloween neighbors?”  Our neighbors are lovely people, but we don’t see them much because of my work and commute schedule.  But we saw them all on Halloween, and she got lots of candy and doting compliments about her costume.  So now she calls them our Halloween neighbors.
  10. Sweet Boy:  “Mommy, you told me 1000 times yesterday to be nice to my sister.  Today you won’t have to tell me at all.”  I’m glad he remembered my frustrated exaggeration that day.

They make me laugh every day (almost).  I can hear my teacher voice and my 40-something phrases that aren’t really used much today all reflected in their humor.  But most of all, I love that they can be funny without being crude.  Don’t get me wrong, we have days where they want to laugh about poop, hug my butt (not too weird) or say the word sock 3000 times (I don’t get that one).  But they still have that naive innocence that I don’t always see with the children I teach.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

 

#25 – The Kids and their Dad

dad

My husband and I each have our own roles with the kids.  We help each other in those roles when we need to, but the kids know what to expect when we are using our strengths.

My husband is great at challenging the kids.  He pushes Sweet Boy to sound out words and Girlie to climb higher than she thought she could.  He also makes them laugh-big giant belly laughs that no one else can get out of them.

Hide-and-seek with Dad

I think my favorite activity is to watch or listen to them playing hide and go seek.  The kids don’t really get the whole concept yet.  Sweet Boy usually calls out, “Come find me.  I’m in the bathroom.”  You can usually hear him laughing behind the shower curtain from two rooms away.

Girlie usually comes running from her hiding spot to tell dad that she’s ready.   And they both use the same three hiding spots.  Always.

Meanwhile, my husband takes great pride in his hiding spots.  After a few minutes, he will usually cough or make his phone beep to help them, but the kids will keep looking right past him.  Sometimes I get called up to help the kids find Dad.  I usually give them not-so-subtle hints like- “Boy, how did the laundry get so full?”  But those subtle clues usually get missed.  After 10 minutes or so, Dad jumps out from the laundry or whatever hiding spot he’s using that night and starts telling the kids how he is the ultimate hide-and-seek champion.  It makes the kids laugh so hard.  But it also makes them try harder next time.  And I can really appreciate his hide and go seek skills when the kids can actually find their own shoes.

So while the kids may get the traditional storytimes, museum trips or songs about brushing your teeth from me, they are getting a whole other type of learning from him.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Photo by simpleinsomnia

 

The Old Mom Christmas List

christmas list

If you are wondering what to get your favorite Old Mom for Christmas (or Hanukah), I have got the list for you.  These are the gifts that your Old Mom wife, mother or friend would really love for their Christmas list.

What not to get

Okay so here are a few things to skip:

The Bath Salts:  Let’s be honest.  As an Old Mom, you are not getting any reasonable amount of time to yourself in the tub.  And nothing is more annoying than listening to the kids ask you for a drink of water or what happened to their other sock while you are supposed to be relaxing.

The latest iPad:  The kids are just going to use it anyway and they are going to argue about who gets the newest, fastest device.

The latest sports jersey:  I used to be a cool sports chick.  But now I’m just a mom who used to be cool.  The part of my brain that used to know stats about baseball, now knows the stats of how many vegetables my kids have eaten this week.  The Jen who always knew what time the football game was on now knows what time Peppa Pig is on.  And the girl who used to be great at fantasy baseball is a fantastic Connect Four strategist.

What we really want

A cooling towel:  This thing is great for those hot flashes that have been getting worse and worse with each passing month.  And its fantastic for those hot, humid summer days when the kids really need to play outside and you just want to sit in front of the AC all day.



A giant coffee mug:  Because pouring 2 or 3  cups of coffee is just a waste of valuable time.


 

A good set of headphones:  For those days when you just can’t listen to the Paw Patrol theme song one more time.


A fancy wine glass:  Because of your strong-willed daughter.



And finally, a VCR Because you still have all those Disney movies on VHS in your basement.

 

So there it is.  My list of what your favorite Old Mom wants for Christmas.  Just saying  – my husband is my editor.  Wink, Wink.

 

Photo by petmutt

Helpful Hints Tuesday – Candy Molds

candy molds

It’s Tuesday, and today I thought I would share with you one of my favorite mom hacks – candy molds.  I’m not claiming to be any kind of expert, and I just don’t have the time to be a Pinterest mom, but this is one tool in my kitchen that multitasks almost as much as I do.

Candy molds to the Rescue

These are great for so many different things.  They are great for making all sorts of homemade gifts.  My kids really like to get involved in the melting and reshaping.  (Bonus – science).  We’ve made chocolates and crayons for their teachers and they are always so much happier to present them with a gift they made rather than some trinkets we find in the holiday section. And while I know the teachers really liked the year I got them some bath bombs, I really feel that if you are going to teach kids about gift giving and appreciating the people in their lives, you need to get them involved.

But here’s my big life hack for these molds.  I use them to make Pedialyte pops when the kids are sick.  Between Sweet Boy‘s asthma, Girlie‘s allergic reactions, and the yearly stomach bugs, we get plenty of opportunities to make the special pops.  If you read the directions, Pedialyte needs to be given to children in small doses.  These molds are perfect for putting a small dose into a fun shape.  Sweet Boy likes the car shapes.  Girlie likes the ducks.

So there you have it.  I love these molds.  I have a few more specialized shapes in the cupboard as well because I really do use them with my kids.

 

Photo by Carnivore Locavore


#24- Thanksgiving weekend traditions

thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving weekend approaches, I’m really looking forward to our family traditions.  We take a few days to enjoy our extended family and kick off the Christmas season together.  Some of our traditions are pretty typical, but some are unique to our family.  If you’re looking for a new idea- check out our Sunday tradition.

It all starts on Wednesday for us.  We visit our families on Thursday, so I end up baking desserts to bring with us.  The kids like to help.  This year I’ll be making a pie, a cake and some cookies.  The kids will stir the cake a bit and “clean” the bowls and frosting for me.   We will also attempt to clean the dining room where we’ll put the tree.  This year I’m trying to convince the kids to put together some old toys that they don’t use anymore to donate to the Salvation Army.  They aren’t too excited about the idea, but I’m trying.

Thanksgiving Day

We are very fortunate that my family and some of my husband’s family live close to each other.  It wasn’t always that way, so I can really appreciate it.  We start off going to my husband‘s aunt’s house.  He has been bragging about her Thanksgiving dinners since our first date.  And he was right.  She and her daughter are amazing cooks and they have an incredibly huge TV for football.  Two words- meat stuffing!!!  They love also love my kids and have so much fun with them.  For a house without any toys, my kids always seem to have fun. Between climbing Uncle Dave, Uncle Joe’s silly faces, Cousin Valerie’s “did you know” games, and Auntie Lorraine’s cozy hugs, the kids always find something to do.

After we eat there, we head over to my brother’s house for dessert.  The two houses are about 5 minutes from each other.  It’s great.  The kids run around with their cousins and the adults catch up and try to make plans for Christmas.  By the time we head home, the kids are pretty tired.  They usually fall asleep in the car and get carried into bed.


Black Friday

I am not a Black Friday shopper.  I have always tried to have my shopping done by Thanksgiving.  As a music teacher, I just need that crossed off my list before concert season begins.  We will be cleaning.  Serious, deep cleaning.   I don’t want to decorate over dirt, so Friday we clean.  Pretty boring, but hey, I’m old.

Saturday

Saturday is decorating day.  The kids get so excited to see the tree and help decorate.  They help put the lights outside.  We spread crafty decorations throughout the house as we watch Rudolph or Frosty.  Santa, snowmen, bows, glitter.  It’s all pure joy and wonder for them, which is pure joy for me.  I also like to make our own turkey dinner on Saturday.  It’s a busy day but one of the most heart-warming days of the year.

Sunday

Here’s where it gets good.  Every year, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving my kids awaken to the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf, Jingles, and a box from Santa.  Santa writes the kids a note telling them what they’ve been doing well and what they can improve.  He also sends each kid a pair of Christmas PJs, a Christmas book, and a new ornament for the tree.  The box builds the wonder of Santa Claus, and the kids get to spend the month dreaming about Christmas in their new PJs.  The books help us talk about the spirit of giving and baby Jesus.

I love this weekend with my family.  It is probably my favorite weekend of the year.  I try to make it special for my kids because the reality is- you probably only get about 10 chances to make Christmas of believing really special.  I want my kids to have great memories of our kick off to Christmas.

 

Photo by faith goble

#23- Thank You Day Kimball Birthing Center

preemie

November 17 is World Preemie Awareness Day.  As you may know, my son, Sweet Boy, was born at 35 weeks.  We were lucky,  His biggest infant complication was jaundice.  It seemed like the end of the world when I was in the hospital for a whole week, but I know now that one week is nothing for a preemie.  I would like to take today’s blog to thank all the doctor’s and nurses who were incredibly helpful during our stay.  Four years and 8 months later, I still remember you and still feel so much gratitude towards you.

Mary

My first thank you must go to nurse Mary.  She was everything I needed that week.  She pushed me to breastfeed when the doctors said the time under the lights was more important.  Keep trying she would tell me.  It was what I wanted, so she wanted it too.  She helped me pump when Sweet Boy couldn’t latch.  The pediatrician was concerned when Sweet Boy was knocking the protective sunglasses off with the new overhead lights, so he wanted to send me to UMASS Memorial in Worcester.  Mary saw me crying about it being an hour away from home and she came up with a way to use two of their older devices to get his bili levels to a point where Sweet Boy could go home.  But not only was she a superstar with the medical stuff, on our fifth day in the hospital, my 37th birthday, Mary got me a slice of cake from the cafeteria.   Thank you, Mary.




Anne Amberg

My second thank you goes to the midwife – Anne Amberg.  I had never met Anne before that day, but she was the midwife on duty that night.  (Oddly enough, at my last appointment, they suggested I meed Anne since there was a good chance she would deliver my baby–go figure).   She was amazing.  She and my husband shared a great love of old pop trivia.  At times I kind of felt like the third wheel in the room.  She got me through two hours of pushing and a successful vaginal birth.  But I will never forget the sound of her shouting, “Three, Three, Three!!!”  The big surprise of the evening was that Sweet Boy had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times.  No one expected it.  If they had known, I probably would have had a c-section 22 hours earlier, but Anne got him out just in time.   Thank you, Anne.

Deb Levesque

My third thank you is for Deb Levesque.   She was the breastfeeding consultant that really helped Sweet Boy learn to latch.  It took us a good three weeks of trying and pumping to really get the latch right, but once he learned, Sweet Boy became a voracious eater.  15 months on the boob, I can proudly say.  Thank you, Deb.

Dr. Kesselman, Dr. Mackenzie, Kathy

My last thank you is for three people – Dr. Kesselman, Dr. Mackenzie, and nurse Kathy.  Dr. Kesselman was the OB in charge of my delivery.  She came in a few times to make sure everything was progressing forward, she checked my stats and got me meds when I wanted them, and every visit was pure sunshine.  But when it was “go time,” she let Anne do her job.  Dr. Mackenzie is the hospital Maternal Fetal Health Specialist.  He handles high-risk cases.  I had already been getting a few extra visits with him because of my age and because they just couldn’t get a good image of Sweet Boy’s heart (he’s still camera shy), so I knew who he was.  He was called in to monitor the situation, but he never came in the room.  I could see him through my window though.  His nurse Kathy came in the room many times though during those two hours of pushing. She relieved the nurses who were there and to help, all while gathering all my numbers to give to the doctors.  I didn’t figure that part out until I was pregnant with girlie.  Kathy had the lucky job of giving me my hormone shots in the rear before my cervix checks.  I recognized her instantly and put it all together.   Maybe it was just Kathy’s shift on the birthing unit, but I still believe she was Dr. Mackenzie’s runner too.  I have to say, those Doctors were brilliant.  Some doctors might say 35-week PPROM, send the patient to UMASS.  Some might let their ego set in and insist that they do the delivery.  But Doctor Kesselman and Dr. Mackenzie knew how nervous I was and kept everything as normal as possible, even though it really wasn’t.  Doing their best to keep me calm was the best thing for me and my baby, and in this case, that meant staying behind the desk.  Thank you, Dr. Kesselman.  Thank you, Dr. Mackenzie.  Thank you, nurse Kathy.

Day Kimball is a small hospital.  It doesn’t have a NICU.  But their top quality doctors and nurses took amazing care of me and my baby.   The whole mother and the whole baby.  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.–Jen Cooney

 

Shop NUK Baby Bargains and save up to 50% today! Shop now

Photo by Sander van der Wel

#22- The Mom Cold

mom cold

I’m sick.  The mom cold has hit. I brought home a nasty cold from school.  I’ve been saying to the coughing, sniffling, sneezing kiddos at school, “Cover, Cover,” in my sweet sing-song music teacher voice all week.  They don’t listen just like my own kids.  I remind them where the tissues and the sink are but they assure me they are all set.  And then those sweet little germ-heads tell me they love music day and give me a hug.  Dammit!

I can’t sleep from the coughing and the sinus pressure feels like something is going to burst.  But the only thing that has burst so far is my patience.  It’s a three-day weekend here and I have been so edgy with my own kids.   Why on Earth do they have so much energy when I have none?  And where have their inside voices gone?  It’s like that thing hides as soon as I start sniffling.   I apologized to my husband for being so short with the kids this weekend and he pled the Fifth.  Yup.  He knows better.

But I’m the mom, so I allow myself a short nap and then get to work.  Meal prep includes extra-spicy salsa chicken this week to clear some of this junk up.  Laundry is just about done.  I’m sure I forgot something when I went shopping- but as long as it’s not coffee filters, I think we’ll survive.  The house is clean-ish.  Just take a quick peek for Hot Wheels or crayons before you step.  (Real moms know Legos may hurt the most, but tiny cars and crayons can land you on your behind).

http://www.bellybuttonband.com

Who’s next

But here’s the worst part of the mom cold – Sweet Boy has been sneezing today.  Hubby has been too.  I’m sure Girlie will be soon.  But Sweet Boy is the worst.  We’ve been dealing with some 4 1/2-year-old rebellion lately and I really don’t want to add asthma meds into that mix.  Will we need the Angry Bull medicine or the Drunk Squirrel medicine? Will he sleep?  Will he need antibiotics or prednisone?  Will he need a trip to the pediatrician or a trip to the ER?  You see, when you have a kid with asthma, a cold is never just a cold.  And I gave it to him.  It wasn’t some kid at daycare.  It was me.

We’ve been on this bus before, and we’ll be on it again.  But it really bothers me when the boy has been tolerating his sick and moody mom all week and now will get his own week or two of misery.  I guess that’s all part of being a mom – as miserable as I feel, I know that if I get my family sick, I’ll feel even worse.

Photo by Ambrose Little


#21- My First Mammogram

first mammogram

Last summer I went for my first mammogram.  I try to get most of my yearly appointments during the summer so I don’t miss school.   The kids were out of daycare, so I arranged for my mother-in-law to watch both kids in all of their craziness.

I went in, very nervous and very under-caffeinated.    I got “dressed” in the hospital’s finest attire and started filling in the questionnaire.   The tech came back and told me I would have to reschedule.  Wait, What???

I was pretty aggravated, but apparently, you can’t get a good mammogram image if you have breastfed within the last six months.  It had only been four months since I stopped feeding Girlie.

I asked her why nobody mentioned it, and she said, “We just don’t get a lot of breastfeeding moms over 40.”  Thank you very much.


Try Again

So, I rescheduled the mammogram for November, but I couldn’t secure child care for my daughter.  My husband watched my son, but Girlie wasn’t quite out of her “Give me mommy or I will scream until you are all deaf, or want to be” phase.  My mother in law was out of town, and it was a holiday for the daycare.  So I put her in the stroller and brought her along.  I was a bit worried that she would get some ideas about her feeding choices again, but that didn’t happen.  In hindsight, that would have been a much simpler problem to handle.

They brought me into the room and we had to take a few minutes to find a spot to put the stroller.  I had her in our medium sized stroller so she could have a snack and a toy.  Well, that didn’t fit in the one corner of the room where she wouldn’t be exposed to any radiation, so they sent me outside to get the umbrella stroller.

The new stroller fit, but she no longer had her entertainment and her half-naked mother was a whole four feet away, on the other side of a four-foot wall, and she was not happy about it.  Girlie screamed for me the whole time.  So as I was being squeezed, arranged and photographed, I was also fighting away the tears and frustration of listening to my daughter scream.

Shop CanvasOnDemand.com Today!
Save 40% today only (11/9/17) sitewide with coupon code: Cranberry40aff 

The Scream Heard Around the World

I tried my calming “it’s okay” voice.  I tried Baa, Baa Black Sheep, Row, Row, Row Your Boat and every lullaby I could think of, but the screaming went on and on.  The tech asked if I wanted to take a minute to calm her, but no.  Let’s just get this done because I know the screaming isn’t going to stop.

The imaging office is right past the pediatrics office at our medical center.  One of our usual pediatric nurses stopped popped her head in because she recognized the screaming.  Talk about mom pride – my daughter has a distinctive tantrum scream.

We finished up the images.  I hurried my shirt on and gave her a big hug.  She screamed in my ear.  We checked out and she screamed in the elevator.  She screamed in the car all the way home (small blessing- we only live 1.5 miles from the doctor’s office).  She even screamed as I got her out of the car and into the house.

We got inside. I gave her a snack, and she just cuddled up on my aching chest for the rest of the day.  Totally worth it.

If you’re wondering- the mammogram results were negative, and my husband will be watching both kids when I go for my second mammogram later this month.

 

Photo by maf04