Curious George's first blood work

Late this afternoon, I rushed the kids to the hospital where LabCorp is in order to do Curious George's blood work up. I met Daddy there, since we know it was going to be difficult for Curious George. I helped Curious George, while Daddy took care of the girls.

I didn't tell Curious George what we're there for until I pulled in the hospital parking lot. "Why are we at the hospital?", Curious George asked. "Matty, we're here to make sure you're not sick. I need you to be brave." I told him. At that he started his whining, "I don't want a shot!"

I couldn't even get him in through the door when the called him in. And when we finally made it in, I sat him on my lap and the tech made me hold his arms down. With all the crying and a little trashing, I was afraid something bad was going to happen. I urged him not to thrash around or it would hurt more, which he thankfully listened to. I told him not to look at it, but with my hands occupied holding his arms, I couldn't make him not look. Then he started screaming, "When is it going to be done?"

The tech had to "fish" for the vein, which of course resulted in a quarter sized bruise. But at least he didn't have to pull the needle out and re-poke him. Finally, when it was said and done, we made him choose where we would eat for dinner and told him he could get any toy he wanted at the store.

Before we left the hospital, which happened to be a Children's Hospital, we let them play around and watch the fountains.

That's Daddy in the middle, looking like he's ready to pass out.

Thing 2 tries to climb up the elephant.

With a little help, she makes it!

Daddy rides with Thing 1. Daddy said that after he helps her up, she wants to promptly get back down saying, "Too big, Daddy."

The 3 stoogies trying to climb up the same elephant.

We won't know the result of the blood work until late this week.

Katie's first bloody lip

I was spending time with the girls on the floor just having a great time. Katie now pulls up to full standing on her own and she enjoys trying to reach whatever she could get her hands on. Jojo is also pulling up, but she is not a pro at it yet.

Jojo was standing up holding on to the couch, and Katie was standing holding on to a wooden chair. Both their backs were against mine, leaning on me, using me to balance. But shortly after, Katie came tumbling back. I picked her up and saw blood in her mouth. She was crying, my sleeve was covered with blood, Jojo was crying because I had left her. It was insane!

When I finally got Katie's bleeding to stop, I saw that the frenelum (the connective tissue in the middle of the upper front teeth that connects the gum to the upper lip) was torn. I wasn't too terribly worried about it, but I thought I should call the pediatrician anyway. I don't want Katie to end up with a lisp or something worse because of it! The nurse took an hour to call me back and said this had just happened to her 3 year old son and everything should just be fine. I proceeded to describe the length of the cut and that I thought it looked deep. She then asked me if I thought she needed stitches. Um. Yeah, Ok. I'm not a doctor! Instead of answering, I kept on describing the cut. She told me to go ahead and bring Katie in.

The doctor took all of 1 minute to look at Katie's gum and said she'll be alright and sent us home.

Grrrr!! I knew that Katie would be OK, but I wasn't about to ignore a health professional. I just wanted to hear the nurse say "yeah, nothing to worry about". But in the middle of telling me that, she decided to call us in!

Interestingly enough, big brother's first bloody episode was 1 week before his 1st birthday. The twins are going to be a year old in 2 weeks.