My Hero

In the same breath that I announce that The Boy deserves the award for "Biggest Whiner" (he's at that age where EVERY SENTENCE comes out as a whine), I also announce that he deserves the award for "Mom's Hero of the Week."

Isn't that an interesting pairing.

He goes to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Tuesday and Thursday mornings are our time alone together. Isn't that a nice schedule?

Well, this week, our time alone together sure was a drag.

On Tuesday, I had to run a very small errand at IKEA, to pick up an item so that the people coming to stay in our new basement guest room for Thanksgiving will have a place to hang their clothes. A $13 errand. And... you know... whatever else I found in the Marketplace...

IKEA is about 30 minutes away (and.... hey! I just looked it up on Google maps and it says 18.7 miles, 27 minutes! I was actually right about a driving-related estimate!), so we left our house at 9:30 am to get there right when it opened at 10:00.

By 11:20, I was not quite all the way to IKEA, and I had not been able to get a hold of anyone to pick up Middle Girl from Kindergarten for me. I had to turn around and head back. The Boy, who at this point had been sitting in the car for almost two hours, was thirsty, so we pulled into the first thing I saw (Target) and visited the drinking fountain and potty (that was smart of me). Then we drove back home to Middle Girl's school.

There was an overturned big rig blocking all but one lane of the freeway. We had been stuck in the traffic for over 90 minutes. Whee! Great use of time and gas: altogether a 2.5 hour trip in which I didn't even get all the way to my destination, let alone obtain the $13 thing I needed. No, I have not tried again.

Then, on Thursday, our other day of Time Alone Together, I took The Boy to a boring meeting at church where he entertained himself with the Leapster and some snacks. Also crawling around under the conference table. (Looking at people's shoes? Their toenail polish colors? Who knows.) We had to leave the meeting before it ended to take Turbo The Kitten to his appointment with (Remember this?) the Veterinary Dermatologist.

The Veterinary Dermatologist was running very late. His first appointment of the day had been over 30 minutes late and he was backed up. This was terrible news to me, since I had already put The Boy through a boring meeting! Now he had to wait in the waiting room for what turned out to be 45 minutes! I had paper and pen in my purse, so he did practice writing his letters, and he visited the potty a few times, but whoo! that much waiting in one morning is A LOT to expect of an almost-four-year-old boy.

Dear The Boy,
Thank you for putting up with boring, extra-frustrating-and-long errands TWO MORNINGS IN ONE WEEK. I would guess that you appreciate your school days much more after that! The good news is that Grandma and Noni are coming to visit, so next week's days off school will be SO MUCH FUN!
You make me feel like a lucky Mommy for having you.
Love,
Mommy.


Even though the wait was long and difficult (see: almost-four-year-old boy who already sat through an hour-long meeting), I think it was a very good thing I took that crazy kitten to the Veterinary Dermatologist.

Turbo's swollen paw didn't really respond to the two antibiotics the other vet tried, and an expensive fungal culture showed no growth, so I was dubious that it was an infection.

But I was wrong.

The Veterinary Dermatologist took a little sample and looked at it under a microscope, discovering that it is "teeming with multiple types of bacteria." Yes, that is gross, you are right. But I was nonetheless glad to have the start of an answer about this swollen paw that we have been dealing with since October 6! He did a culture of the sample so we can find out exactly what bacteria we are dealing with.

The best part of the story happens now:
He gave Turbo some kind of new, special antibiotic. He took pictures of the paw and told me to come back in 14 days for the next dose and more pictures. He did not charge me for the antibiotic and will not charge me for the next dose or the re-check fee, because if this antibiotic works, the pharmaceutical company will pay him for the photos! TRA LA TRA LA TRA LA!

In other news, he did say that this kitten is quite a handful. On top of that, the other vet had written the following in Turbo's file:
"Feisty."

Ha! I'm right! He does have above-average energy!

Perhaps we should have been more careful when choosing a name... was it a self-fulfilling prophecy?