Doctors Visit

 Poor J had to attend his 16 month well visit this week.

He is not a fan of the doctor, but we can’t blame him. He has had like 6 ear infections since he was born, a handful of colds and flus, eczema, a few ER visits, and a few anaphylactic reactions (we are officially THOSE allergy parents now) so the poor guy immediately gets on edge when he figures out where we are. He’s also in the thick of the stranger-danger phase, so today he started bawling as soon as the doctor walked in.

L, in contrast, says shots are her favorite for the suckers and barely notices. When we got her flu shot last week, some idiot lady in Walgreens was watching her play and laugh and said to us “HAH! She won’t be laughing in a minute when that needle hits her arm!” I told her I reckon we will see. L happily skipped out of Walgreens, not a single whimper and excitedly showing everyone including that stupid mean lady her Paw Patrol band aid. 

These two kids are polar opposites, and yet somehow it works. Somehow my heart thinks they are both perfect. I have never wished one would be more like the other, and that surprises me. You’d think it’d be easy to pick a favorite or wish for one to take on a better quality of another. But taking them to the doctor is the perfect example - I love to hold scared little J and watch him growl like a tiger (he growls now when he’s scared) at the doctor and fall even more in love with him as he wails about his shots and climbs all over every piece of furniture in the waiting room. And I love to sit with cheerful L, chattering contentedly and playing I spy with me in the waiting room and watching her steal every nurses heart with her warmth and giggles. 

Parenting is never easy, but loving them isn’t the hard part. That’s what surprised me most about having two kids.