We spent basically the entire month of April in the doctors' office. We started with routine annual well checks. Then each of the red heads took a turn with the never ending ear infection. I don't think ear infections are especially contagious, but my kids are a pretty tight knit crew, so maybe sympathy sickness is a thing. There was also a drug reaction and an unfortunate incident wherein an infant sought to ingest a fire ant pile.
On one of our drives to the doctor, my little girl was adamant that it was not her turn to get a shot. I assured her that she wasn't getting a shot, and the doctor only wanted to look in her ear to see why it was still hurting. She got excited and said, "And then I will show her my hurting toes." In the same tone of voice you would expect if she were saying, "Tomorrow's my birthday and I want chocolate cake." I laughed and told her that the doctor would probably remind her to wear shoes when she rides her bike.
The four year old joined the conversation at this point: "Mommy, doctors don't give directions because they are not Mom and Dad." Sometimes it's nice to know that he does hear what I tell him, even if he doesn't quite get it. I told him that doctors give us directions about how to keep our bodies healthy. He asked why. I told him that doctors spend a long time in college to learn about how bodies work. He asked why. I told him that when you go to college you get to choose what you want to learn about. I gave some more examples "Daddy learned about money in college. Mommy learned about history. Aunt Heather learned about food that is good for you. Grandpa Justin learned about making cool movies on the computer (sorry Justin. I don't actually know what your degree is in.) Aunt Megan is learning about...[pause while I try to think of a preschool description of chemical engineering...I've got nothing] chemistry."
Somewhere in the middle of this list I realized how silly it was to be talking to 3 children who are not yet school age about college degrees. So I decided I might as well go completely crazy and start laying on the pressure for academic achievement. "Ashley, what do you want to learn about when you go to college?" She thought about it briefly and then said, "I want to learn about going somewhere."
Well played little one. Well played.
