EpiPens

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I headed to the Pediatrician's office for Nadia's twelve-year-old physical. I got some not nice looks from the receptionist when I showed up with three kids considering only one had an appointment, but what was I going to do? We all had masks on. In the past it was never a problem, but with COVID-19 they want as few people in the clinic as possible. I was going to ask a neighbor if she might watch the boys for a bit, but one her husband mentioned their kids needed to stay away from ours for two weeks since ours went to camp, I knew that wasn't going to be a possibility. I'm fine with Nadia and Ian staying at home in August while I take Oliver to his annual appointment. Over the past year Nadia gained 3 pounds and grew 1.5 inches. She's currently 94 pounds (54th percentile) and 58 inches tall (29th percentile). Her BMI is at the 70th percentile. The doctors are happy any time it's less than 85. Last year she received her immunizations, which meant she didn't need any today although the doctor mentioned the HPV again, which I have opted to skip. The receptionist took all our temperatures. The kids were confused by the numbers because they were in Celsius. I asked the doctor for an order for a lipid panel. I already have those for the boys. I was waiting until I got one for Nadia. I am planning to take all three kids to the lab at the hospital some time this month. I'll take them early in the morning because they can't eat breakfast before having it done, and I promised them I'd take them to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast as a treat if they do a good job with having their blood drawn. It's a way of screening them to make sure they don't have the condition that ended my brother's life. 

I usually am careful not to ask the Pediatrician questions about my other kids during their sibling's appointment, but yesterday I asked for an Rx for an EpiPen for Ian during Nadia's appointment, and thankfully the doctor graciously agreed. I picked two EpiPens up at CVS yesterday afternoon. Hopefully I won't ever need to use them, but I feel better knowing we have them. Ian and I are determined to be very vigilant in trying to make sure he doesn't eat any tree nuts. The doctor suggested a referral to an allergist. Ian saw allergists PLENTY when he was a toddler. I might ask for a referral at some point, but I think we'll wait until this COVID-19 situation calms down, which might mean waiting a year? We shall see. 

Picking up our grocery order went very quickly yesterday afternoon at Walmart. They were out of vanilla yogurt and substituted one pasta for a different kind than what I had ordered, but otherwise they were able to fulfill the rest of my order. Nadia and I ran in the store for a few minutes as Grandma gave her some money to buy a bathing suit. I picked up a couple of other things in addition to the bathing suit, and I did notice the shelves in the cleaning supplies aisle were still rather empty. She had her new bathing suit on yesterday evening, but when we got to the pool at 5:30, we found out it had closed early. Later I saw they had posted on Facebook that they were closing early at 3:30 due to very low attendance. The weather was in the high 70's yesterday compared to the 90's that we've been experiencing lately. Hopefully I have learned my lesson and will check Facebook every day before we head out to the pool as I don't enjoy driving 30 minutes (round trip) for nothing. 

Nadia pulled one of her molars out a few days ago right before she went to bed. Ian woke up early that morning (about 6:15), and Nadia sleeps past 8:00 so I let him be the tooth fairy. She was very surprised when I asked if she had checked under her pillow as she assumed that her tooth had come out too late for her to receive her $1 that night. The tooth fairy doesn't have the best track record for promptness in our house, but we succeeded this time! Nadia has been the tooth fairy before, but this was Ian's first time. He enjoyed it and successfully placed the one dollar coin under her pillow without waking her up. 

Monday night was the first time in almost four months that I was away from home in the evening. I was very tired when we got home from Nadia's audition. I wish Paul was able to go with us today to Six Flags, but he's very busy at work and one of his best employees is on vacation this week. This will be the farthest I've driven in 2020, the most hours we've worn masks in our entire lives, and it will definitely be the most exhausting day thus far in 2020. The park is supposedly 3hr and 15 minutes from our house. I think it will take longer than that to get there, but I'd love to be wrong! If I had known what life would be like in 2020, I would never have gotten a membership to Six Flags in January. I thought we'd visit five different parks - two of them on our vacation in August, and I figured we'd spend more than one day at the one in MD. I've been paying for Paul's membership, but I'm very dubious that he'll actually go to any Six Flags parks this year. I figure if the kids and I go to a Six Flags park at least three times this summer, I won't feel badly about the cost of the membership. The kids are very excited about riding rides and seeing their cousins - two of their most favorite things to do!!

We haven't worked on earning Junior Ranger badges recently, but here's Nadia's collection thus far.