Yesterday was Miss A’s followup appointment for her walking pneumonia and coughing over the weekend. Her doctor said she sounded great, but he does, unfortunately, think she has asthma. We are equipped with nebulizer duck, though, and since we’ve grown accustomed to the warning signs that she’s headed for a wheezing episode I am not freaking out about any of this…yet.

Any way Miss A went back to daycare yesterday morning and I headed to work while my mother-in-law watched Miss C. I am usually late for the girls’ doctors appointments but so far this week I’ve actually been early or on time for things and I didn’t want to ruin my track record. Instead of taking the time to pack our “busy bag” that I fill with toys and books and snacks for appointments or restaurant trips, I left it at home and figured that the girls would be able to entertain themselves, which is actually pretty stupid now that I think about it considering we were at the doctor’s for nearly two hours on Sunday morning.

Miss A’s appointment was at 2:20 so when I picked her up at daycare she was still napping. In my dogged determination to make it to the doctor’s on time it never occurred to me that her Pull Up needed changing and that she might need to take a long post-nap pee. She was drowsy and a bit confused since I picked her up at naptime, but by the time we got to the doctor’s office she had decided it was OK to pee a gallon and her Pull Up was dragging. And there we sat and waited with no fresh Pull Up and no busy bag of fun distractions.

When we arrived the girls started playing in the waiting area where there is a musical table, a preschool kitchen, and a fun mini play set with a small slide. But then they both started coughing, in unison and then back and forth, and I could sense dirty looks were on the horizon, so I instructed them come to the “sick” waiting area, which is devoid of toys but presents you with a box of tissue, some parenting magazines, and an assortment of maimed lift the flap books, where every flap has been ripped off the pages, to entertain your children. Of course, usually when kids are sick they just sit lethargically in your lap, so it’s no problem, but the girls were just hacking and coughing, not wanting to sit still.

For about 45 minutes I attempted to entice the girls, mainly Miss A, that the “sick” waiting area was the happening place to be! Never mind those toys out in the regular waiting area, we can play Patty Cake! Mama will sing (and mama doesn’t sing in public) If You’re Happy and You Know It! We survived and our name was called and then I looked down and realized I had on two completely different black flat sandals. And then they put Miss A on the scales and she weighed a half pound more than she did on Sunday and I know it was her pee saturated Pull Up.