progress with a sucker

Yesterday was vaccination day.

Kelly promised me she wouldn’t cry. Monica insisted Kelly go first. This, at times, sums up their personalities. Kelly had to get 5 – a number she kept trying to turn into two (it’s easy when you use fingers to represent digits). Monica had to get two.

When we entered into the doctor’s room, the nurse and I had a conversation like this.

Me: “Can I hold them?”

Nurse (looking at Monica who was practically hunching in the corner): “Yeah, I’m guessing you’re going to have to. I’ll try to be quick.”

She was quick. Kelly started screaming and crying as the nurse put the cotton swap on her arms. “It hurts, it hurts!” She was totally psyching herself out. Still, in less than 40 seconds all five shots were distributed through various parts of the body.

The spectacle of hermanita gritando did not do any wonders for Monica. She tried to dodge out the door as Kelly jumped out of my arms. I grabbed her and did a wrestling move to pin her in my arms. The nurse really knew her stuff, and 10 seconds later Monica was well and thoroughly vaccinated…although it took her a good 5 minutes to stop screaming. Yep, people were staring at us as we walked out of the office. Everyone knew what they were getting.

Which, besides shots, were also suckers.

On the way back home we stopped at Burke’s Hardware to pick up a screw. They eagerly opened their suckers and were trading them back and forth. And dropping them on the floor. The floor with sawdust, fertilizer, and other drabs and drubs of people working on home projects. And then happily picking the suckers up and continuing to suck away.

Walking out Kelly told me she had to go to the bathroom. I begged a store clerk to let us use the employee restroom. Again, it was a hardware store. On the floor next to the (highly sketchy) toliet was a plumbing snake. Monica dropped her sucker right next to it.

“Okay,” I freaked out. “I can’t handle this, suckers go in the basura (trash) right now!”

Monica also started to freak out. “Por que?!”

“Because your sucker is covered in po-po. It’s disgusting.” And, not being in a patient mood (I really was grossed out, suckers are sticky monstrosities to begin with…especially with children), I grabbed her sucker and threw it in the trash.

Monica was not happy. She crunched her face up and started to throw a tantrum. I knelt down beside her and calmly said, “I know you wanted that sucker. It was your reward for the shots. But it was not good anymore. When we get home I will give you a dulce.”

And you know what she did? My eldest daughter, who a month ago would have completely melted down and had to be carried from store? She shrugged and said “okay.”

Progress in bits and pieces.