tactical blunder, almost continental
Usually if there's a basic error in parenting, I'm the one to make it. For once, this weekend, R managed to get in first.
We arranged to get the children in for flu shots after L's swimming lesson on Saturday morning. The plan was to give them no warning, whisk them in for shots, and then off for some kind of treat. Stealth was critical because L decided, at her fourth-birthday checkup, that she wasn't interested in her usual fearless approach to needles and subsequently had to be pinned to the table by R for her vaccinations...
Anyway, R took L to get changed after her lesson while I played with Rr and talked to another father, and all of a sudden there was an almighty wail from the changing room and L started shrieking... because she'd been told what was next... Anyway, the only thing that calmed her down was when we got to the pediatricians' office and she realized that she could try and get Rr to be scared - not terribly effective with a 2 year old, but there you are.
So for their treat we took them to Starbucks for a hot chocolate (for L) and a blueberry muffin, so sweet as to be indistinguishable from cake. I managed to get in a donut to go with my coffee. The placed was mobbed and since the sun was out and the air wasn't too cold, we sat outside.
I briefly entertained notions of continental sophistication, having coffee outside when it was less than 80 degrees, but really, eating a donut out of a paper bag while 6 lanes of traffic whisks by on suburban Connecticut Avenue is hardly the Champs D'Elysee, not least because of the lack of diesel fumes.
We arranged to get the children in for flu shots after L's swimming lesson on Saturday morning. The plan was to give them no warning, whisk them in for shots, and then off for some kind of treat. Stealth was critical because L decided, at her fourth-birthday checkup, that she wasn't interested in her usual fearless approach to needles and subsequently had to be pinned to the table by R for her vaccinations...
Anyway, R took L to get changed after her lesson while I played with Rr and talked to another father, and all of a sudden there was an almighty wail from the changing room and L started shrieking... because she'd been told what was next... Anyway, the only thing that calmed her down was when we got to the pediatricians' office and she realized that she could try and get Rr to be scared - not terribly effective with a 2 year old, but there you are.
So for their treat we took them to Starbucks for a hot chocolate (for L) and a blueberry muffin, so sweet as to be indistinguishable from cake. I managed to get in a donut to go with my coffee. The placed was mobbed and since the sun was out and the air wasn't too cold, we sat outside.
I briefly entertained notions of continental sophistication, having coffee outside when it was less than 80 degrees, but really, eating a donut out of a paper bag while 6 lanes of traffic whisks by on suburban Connecticut Avenue is hardly the Champs D'Elysee, not least because of the lack of diesel fumes.
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