My two had their seasonal flu shots a few weeks ago, and C reacted badly, so we'd been working on tensing up all his muscles, blowing out his breath, and then relaxing his arms so he could have the shot over and done with quickly.
It worked stupendously until the actual moment the doctor came in the office.
And then all hell broke loose.
And I practically had to pile-drive the poor kid again.
Rosey the Roo watched her brother folded in a sobbing mess on the floor, then got up and re-settled herself in the chair next to the doctor. She flopped her arm on the chair and watched (watched!) while the doctor gave her shot, huffing in her breath only when a tiny bead of blood welled up when the needle was removed.
Why do I keep forgetting they're so different?
Before she was born, I thought having two kids would be easier than one - in some ways, am not entirely deluded - but it seems as if the second go around ought to be easier - you're not so stymied by the stages, you have a better understanding of bottles and breastfeeding and toilet-training (or at least it's not a total wander-in-the-wilderness)...it just seems...like...it should be...simpler?
Oh, how the gods laughed.
But sometimes - just sometimes - when they're playing together and giggling over the same things....when their laughter rings out like bells......and their dark heads bend over something....
It's like they're halves of the same whole.
8 comments:
Oh poor Cass! But that point you made in your post about how they're so different and yet so same? I know EXACTLY what you mean. I do.
Poor guy. :-(
Both of my girls hate shots, but my older one is particularly bad about them. Several years ago, it took three of us to (barely) hold her down for a flu shot and she was screaming so loudly that doctors came from the furthest reaches of the building to see what was going on.
That's how it was when we took the kids. Julia was a puddle of tears dripping out of her chair, whereas when Oliver sat down, the nurse had to ask him to STOP FLEXING.
Oh, how true that is! Poor Cass.
I do maintain that two aren't twice the work of one; particularly when the first is so much about adjusting to all the changes that parenting brings. But then there's the fact that our children are individuals, and need to be treated as such. It's hard to remember that sometimes, even though mine aren't babies anymore...
Oh, at least he didn't pass out. I did.
Wait. Not today or recently, you understand...
That is such a lovely lovely picture.
Have a third. It's a doddle. You haven't time to pay much attention to him/her - well, to worry about him/her. And you're confident anyway.
My two girls are exceedingly different. Yet very close. And with their brother.
How funny you mentioned that. My two girls (both blonde) are as opposites as possible. God is truly having a laugh on us...
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