I took the kids to the doctor this week, and that’s always fun and exhausting. It’s a great way to exercise your patience anyway. Children just love waiting rooms. I love waiting rooms too. I’ve never been to jail, but I imagine busy doctor’s waiting rooms feel sort of similar to being in prison.
My dad helped me take the baby to the doctor a while back, and at least he added a good sense of humor to the waiting experience. We had gotten past the waiting room when they called us in and then had us wait another 15 minutes in the doctor’s room (which is really just another waiting room if you ask me).
The first thing we saw was a giant mural on the wall of a bunch of smiling ocean animals. It just kind of jumped out at you, it was so huge. Some were swimming and others were standing together on an iceberg. It was colorful and fun for the kids I guess, but it was a little ridiculous. I kept looking at it, sort of in a trance after many, many long doctor’s appointments and testing with the baby that week. I couldn’t quite decide what was so wrong with the big painting of smiling seals, laughing penguins, and happy polar bears and such, but something was definitely strange about it.
A few seconds later I busted out laughing when dad commented: “Oh isn’t that nice—a polar bear, seals, penguins, whales, and sharks all playing together nicely!”
I had a long wait for the second doctor’s appointment yesterday, and there were no happy ocean paintings. However I laughed as I watched a kid trying to braid her mom’s hair and touch her eyelashes and try on mom’s glasses, tugging and pulling on this and that over and over. I laughed until my bored little daughter decided to follow suit. Then the other mom was laughing at me. I soon had a big funny braid and was dodging her sticky fingers every time I turned around while trying to soothe a crying baby at the same time. Thankfully the other mom was full of energy and had a great sense of humor. It always helps having another adult around to lighten the mood while you sit in a waiting room 30 or 40 minutes for a doctor’s appointment that lasts 5 minutes with children crying and tugging at your hair and eye lashes, and arm hair or whatever they can grab a hold of!
Well, they are sending us back to do more testing and doctor’s appointments tomorrow so I’m going to go take a nap and try to regain some energy while the baby is snoozing too! It’s a new specialist this time. Can’t wait to see what kind of paintings they have!