Dodging the flu... and DHS.

The other day I took the girls into the peds office to get the flu shot. The plain old regular (preservative-free version) flu shot. I'm a little cold and flu nervous this year. Not because of media-hype, but because of Gabriella's lungs. A little cold can turn into pneumonia so quickly for her and watching your child gasp for breath... well, it makes me a little teary just thinking about it to be honest.

So we get the girls into the exam room and Gabriella, who had been pretty worried about this shot situation, went into complete hysterics. It took Jonathan and I to hold her down while the nurse gave her the one tiny poke. When Gabriella was done I looked over at Juliana to see how she had fared watching her sister through what must have appeared to be an excruciating, horrendous ordeal. Juliana was sitting quite unphased, in a chair by herself and she had managed to pull one pant leg all the way up and was holding it up, ready and waiting for her own shot in the thigh. That girl will do anything if she thinks it makes her a big girl. And let me tell you, she took that shot with only one little grimmace.

Gabriella, on the other hand, limped pathetically down the hall and told me she needed to use the bathroom. I went in with her, while Jonathan and Juliana waited outside. Once in the stall Gabriella resumed sobbing about her shot. She wailed, "I don't like shots! I don't want anymore shots! I just don't want to get hurt anymore!" We emerged from the bathroom and Jonathan gave me a funny look and asked if a red haired woman had been in the bathroom with us. I said that I thought a lady had gone in right ahead of us and asked why. Apparently, the red headed woman had come out of the bathroom ahead of us and told her companion who had been waiting for her, "There was a little girl in there that was just sobbing and sobbing! I think she told her mother that she didn't want to get hit anymore!" So... umm... if child protective services comes knocking on my door... You'll all help me clear that one up, right?

(This photo is from last week, but I figured I'd throw it in. I love these blue flowers. So vibrant... and this photo has very very little processing and no color alterations. Too bad Gabriella threw on her "I don't really like pictures" face. Sigh... I hope I'm not painting her as an uncooperative child, but she draws lines with pictures and shots. and dogs... but that is another story)