Gideon's Birthday Adventures & Mommy Drain Bamage

Yesterday was Gideon's (boy #4) birthday. The first part of the day, all the boys were playing legos together at the dining room table. Seth is 14. This doesn't happen very often any more, so I had to capture the moment. I love when they all play together; it warms my mama-heart.

 

But the fun had to end because I knew I would have to take THIS boy to the doctor. Titus too. Both had a pink-eye-thing, if you couldn't tell.

                               We had lunch first. Jarod made Gideon a special birthday sandwich.

Micah made Gideon a birthday crown & dubbed him King for the Day, which has become our birthday tradition over the past few years.

 I made about 1200 phone calls to doctors offices & our insurance company. Our family doctor couldn't see Isaac, so I had to get a visit to the walk-in pre-authorized. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the "walk-in" (which is supposed to be convenient), doesn't it? Annoying. But at least the walk-in had a neato fish tank which kept the boys entertained for a few minutes.

       Who knew the walk-in was also our little town's aquarium? It was an errand and a field trip. 

                                              Titus is always a very cooperative patient.

 Isaac has a serious doctor phobia & starts screaming if a doctor even looks in his general direction. However, this visit.......I told him to " kindly please stop crying".......and he DID. It was......weird. Guess he's turning into a big boy. He wasn't exactly sure about the finger thingie, but he didn't fight it. Having all his brothers around him was comforting.

Seth helped Isaac (and subsequently me) to endure the wait.

                                                  Bored boys. We had a pretty long wait. It was a small office. And there were a lot of energetic boys with me. Not exactly their idea of a good time.

 After the we left the doctor's office, we went to WalMart for eye medicine, cake-makin' stuff & birthday presents. I literally had to go through the pharmacy line 4 times, at approximately 10 min each wait. Stupid stuff with the insurance company: authorization issues or something. More annoying. GGgrrrrrr. But I knew I was out of time to start any cake. So I opted for doughnuts, which actually made the boys really happy. When I was in the check-out line, the lady tried to charge me for 12 dozen doughnuts instead of just 12 doughnuts. Then she tried to fix it & got stuck. The "speedy" checkout line took about 15 minutes. But the boys were amazingly well-behaved through all the lines we stood in & waiting that we did during the day. At least, I think they were good. I know at some point I stopped being able to think about anything except for getting home & was probably mentally tuning some things out. It's this great ability I have......to ignore some of the really annoying things the boys can do. It's a super power, really. But I think it has damaged my brain & caused memory loss issues. I go into the "zone" & I say 'yes' to things I have no recollection of saying 'yes' to. I don't often hear them before about the 4th or 5th "MOOOOMMYYYY!!!" It's not good. But, it does help me to stay somewhat sane. I'm pretty sure I took candy bars & gum-packs out of their grubby little hands, lifted a couple of them off of the conveyor belt & stopped a fist fight or two in the grocery line. I just have no memory of it. I'm probably better off that way. So are the children.

Somehow, Gideon didn't notice that the day was stressful.........he was just so happy it was his birthday. When Daddy got home we had our little family party for him. (We'll have a BIG family birthday with my in-laws in a couple weeks.) 

 

                          Seth helping Gideon put his lego ship together. He's a nice big brother.

     

 I can't believe my baby is 6 years old already. He brings such joy, happiness & humour into our lives. I can't imagine my life without him. I'm really glad he doesn't think that he is too old for my hugs & kisses. His brothers are always trying to tell him it's not "manly" to smooch me, so he gives me EXTRA smooches, just to spite them. When we were getting ready for the trip to the doctor, we had THIS conversation: 
                         Me: "Gideon put these jeans on." 
                       Gideon: "Awwwww!!! I wanted to wear my sweats!!!"
                        Me: "It's your birthday. You need to be handsome." 
                       Gideon (remembering):    "Oooohhhhhhh,YYEEAAAHH!!! Hey, Mom. Can I wear a tie?"
                        Me: "Not THAT handsome." 
                       Gideon (throwing his arms around my neck):"You're the best mommy in the world."
                        Me: "You're the best Gideon in the world." Followed by lots of smooches to my cheeks. Why? I don't know. Because he loves me. Of course, he also uses this method to get out of trouble. It sometimes works. He's cheesy & melodramatic & oh-so-silly & sweet. He makes me happy.

                              

Isaac's (& Titus') eyes were greatly improved by the end of the evening...........probably didn't even need to go to the doctor. Oh, well. At least we have enough drops for the next bought of pink eye. I should add that I am thankful for health care & for my ability to take care of my childrens' needs. I am thankful for convenient-type stores & for my neat IPhone (even though I hate talking on it to the insurance company & it takes bad pictures) & for a car to drive to the store & to the doctor in. But that doesn't mean I'm not brain damaged.