A Busy But Blessed Monday

Usually I keep outings and errands to a minimum on any given day. I get stressed easily, and it tends to happen quickly when I’m by myself in small stores with 4 children 5 and under. If we go out in a day, it’s usually just once.

So yesterday I was a bit apprehensive. I had to get the kids all out the door early (for us) to walk over to our church and drop Tobi off at day camp. The forecast was calling for rain, but I really hate to load all the kids into the van for a 2 mins drive, have to unload them all to drop off 1 child, then load the remaining 3 into the van for another 2 minute drive home. So I prayed that if it HAD to rain, that it would wait until after lunch.

I was also a bit concerned about how well Tobi would do at day camp. He isn’t used to being in such a loud and busy environment and he gets overwhelmed easily. He feels emotions very intensely and can go from laughing to full out meltdown in a matter a seconds if he gets upset or frustrated.

We had talked about what kind of behavior was expected of him at day camp and warned him that if he couldn’t act appropriately, he might not be able to go back. We also told him that if he feels himself getting mad inside, that it was OK to ask the leaders if he could go somewhere quiet to calm down.

Tobi was so excited for day camp. Our church is the building behind him, to the right of his head, with the mural on the wall.

Less then 2 hours later I would have to get the 3 youngest kids out the door again and walk to the doctor’s office for Gabriel’s 2 month appointment. It’s a small office with not a lot of room for a stroller, and I wasn’t sure how well Josiah would manage. Or how well I would manage with Josiah.

The appointment was at 11 and I had to pick Tobi up at the church (it’s on the way home) at 11;45, so I was also praying that we would be out of the Dr. office in time. Then we would walk home, eat lunch, and I could recuperate if need be.

How it all went

Since we had the time change on the weekend, the 2 older kids slept in. I’m glad I put them to bed in their clothes Sunday night! I had to wake Tobi and rush him through breakfast in order to get out the door on time. He was in a great mood and so excited.

And it wasn’t raining!

The walk was great, the weather was mild. We got to the church a bit early and Tobi wrote his name on a name tag then ran off.

I asked Annie if she wanted to keep walking or go straight home. She decided to walk for a bit so off we went. I had Gabriel in a ring sling and Josiah in the stroller. We stopped at the grocery store, Annie picked out some apples for a snack, and we went home to eat them.

Around 10:30 it was time to leave again! I wasn’t looking forward to the Dr. appointment. Josiah is just so busy and he doesn’t listen well yet. He also tends to have very loud tantrums. I would have preferred to have him stay in the stroller the whole time, but I would have to take him out of the stroller to take off his coat and I was sure he’d be mad about having to go directly back into the stroller. Since I didn’t want to start off the visit with a tantrum, I took him out of the stroller and prayed for a smooth time.

We walked in and immediately Annie said she had to pee. I was pretty sure she had gone before we left but I didn’t want to risk it. Then we were informed that the Dr was stuck at the hospital and wouldn’t be getting to the office today.

Since the nurse is the one who gives the shots and measures the baby, etc., we decided to get that all done anyway.

I’m so glad the nurse is so sweet and understanding. Annie was great. Gabriel did as well as one would expect from a 2 month old would to be stripped, weighed, measured, given the oral rotovirus vaccine and poked twice. Josiah was..well, he acted his age.

He was into everything. Pushing buttons on the office phone, dialing auto-dial numbers. When the nurse put the phone up high, he immediately climbed up the side of the desk, no problem. Then while he was screaming about being taken away from the phone, he wedged himself among wires between the desk and the wall and turned off the power bar to the computer while the nurse was updating charts.

I did bring a toy and his milk to occupy him. He drained his sippy cup in about 30 seconds and barely gave the toy a glance. Oh well, I tried.

I was thankful that Gabriel isn’t rolling yet and I could leave him on the exam table because I was constantly chasing Josiah around.

Poor bubs wasn’t feeling too well after his shots, but thankfully he never got a fever!

Finally I went and got the stroller out of the coat area. It was awkward in such a tight office but if Josiah was going to scream the whole time anyway, he might as well do it where he can’t get into trouble.

I did have some other concerns that I brought up with the nurse regarding Gabriel’s head and neck (he always has his head turned to the right so his head is shaping a bit funny) and Josiah’s ears (I want to get his hearing tested.) Since the Dr. wasn’t there I have to go back to get Gabriel’s head looked at next week. The nurse was great and arranged a hearing test at the children’s hospital for Josiah.

We got out of the Dr. office early and went to pick up Tobi. He was so happy. He’d done a great job at behaving properly and he chattered the whole way home about all the things he’d done in the morning. Nice!

It was a bit of a hectic morning, but there were so many blessings hidden within everything.

• It didn’t rain on our walks. It was spitting a bit on the walk to the Dr. and on the walk home, but not enough to get us wet. Which was nice because I had no real way to keep us dry if it did.
• Tobi did great.
• Because the Dr. wasn’t there, some people made new appointments and left. This meant that we could go in with the nurse right away instead of waiting. And she was so great about it all. She held the baby when I had to deal with Josiah, she held Josiah when I had to hold the baby. She made tons of phone calls for me later on to arrange Josiah’s hearing test.
• The fact that Josiah isn’t quite 2 yet is  a blessing! He failed his newborn hearing test but we didn’t have 2 vehicles at the time and I couldn’t follow up on the referral test. Since he is under 24 months and he had never gotten the referral test done, he got an appointment very quickly (it’s on the 19th.) If he had been over 24 months, we would have had to wait 4-6 months for an appointment.
• Even though Gabriel was cranky in the afternoon from his shots, he never got a fever. When I finally got him to sleep for a nap, he slept for a LONG time. So I was able to have some good time with the other kids instead of pacing with a sad, uncomfy baby the whole day.
• My husband brought home Subway so that I didn’t have to cook supper.
• My husband is able to work from home on the 19th, so I won’t have to bring all 4 kids with me to the hospital. That also means I’ll be able to bring the car instead of the van (I haven’t driven the van in the city yet, and I don’t like dealing with it in tight or busy parking lots.)

So there were plenty of blessings despite a bit of a hectic morning.

 ^{Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him}.

James 1:12 NIV