Military Kids
"While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about."
~Angela Schwindt
We are caught up in school preparation in my house. Uniform buying, class registration, school orientation, last minute book list reading, dental cleanings and the mandatory school physical run our schedules. My mom reminded me last night that procrastination has brought this upon me, the harried effect of jamming it all into the week before school. She is right, and in an insane way, I like it this way.
We live far enough away from our military base that we warrant a civilian doctor. It is the first time in 17 years that I have valet parking services included with my doctor visits. Our family practice physician is a young, fit , knowledgeable man who also has a specialty in sports medicine. He doesn't have children yet. In an effort to streamline the check up process for my family, they doubled up on appointments so we could get the youngest and middle child finished. The older child had his checkup last week. Yesterday was the second day in a week that my family, sans overworked military member, overtook the doctors office. The valet guy loves us. I am sure that we are the only vehicle driving up with Radio Disney playing on the radio. The receptionists love us, when we show up they get to change the channel on the tv from the doctors ESPN to Cartoon Network or Radio Disney. The nurse practitioner loves us, she is reminded of a time gone by in her life when she was raising boys. I think she also secretly watches me to see if I'm twitching. She finds us hilarious.
We weren't in the waiting room a minute and a half when the youngest proclaimed that he needed to use the bathroom. With clearance to enter in, he walked through the door and went directly to the bathroom on the other side. He didn't shut the bathroom door offering up all the sounds and visibility of a toilet paper commercial. Said receptionists and nurse P chuckled as they recounted the event to me.
In the weight and height room, youngest and middle child stretched to new heights, recounting to the world the height requirements for the rides at their favorite amusement parks. It sounded like they were ordering up a heaping of a few inches here or there so they would make the cut next time. Nurse P would have given them anything they wanted if she had her magic wand.
The highlight of the visit came when our doctor entered in to check out the kids. He has a great manner with them, asking them the important questions instead of me. This lends itself to way more disclosure than I would like, but makes the children feel very special. First up was middle child, "Ladies First" was the excuse from Doc. Are you looking forward to school? Yes. What is your favorite subject? Science. What do you play outside? Bike riding and kickball. Do you wear your helmet when you ride? Sometimes. How often do you brush your teeth? Once to twice a day. What is your favorite food?
(This is where the military child takes over) Can I chose from any country? (Doctor looks at me out of the side of his face, I shrug) Any country you want... He says. German Schnitzel! Replies the military child. (Doctor remarks how he has never had such an ingenious answer, mom vows to make schnitzel for dinner to reward brilliant child.)
Next up is youngest child. Are you looking forward to school? Sort of. What is your favorite thing to do at school? Recess, PE, freeze tag. What do you play outside? Baseball, bike riding, swimming. Do you wear your helmet? No. How often do you brush your teeth? UM...... What is your favorite vegetable? (This is the point where I cringe. Youngest has started avoiding vegetables. Had Doc asked this question to middle child, we would have scored 100 on the verbal portion of the test.) Well, it is one that has a lot of vitamin C, but I don't like it. (same sideways glance from doctor, I've started to avoid eye contact) It's okay, you can tell me, says the Doc. Broccoli. (fesses up the youngest. I don't say that I didn't know that broccoli has vitamin C.) That's interesting , says Doc, most people don't know that broccoli has vitamin C. Youngest just nods.
The rest of the check ups went smoothly with a noticeable grin on the doctor's face. He has his share of patients who are children and he takes care of a lot of families. We are not his normal family of patients. We are a confident and quirky group. We have worldly experience that others only dream of. We have our flaws, we have our cracks and we have some very strong personality traits. Judging from the raucous laughter while we were in the doctors office as well as the huge smiles that we left behind, we are welcome. The military family.
Our children teach us what life is all about."
~Angela Schwindt
We are caught up in school preparation in my house. Uniform buying, class registration, school orientation, last minute book list reading, dental cleanings and the mandatory school physical run our schedules. My mom reminded me last night that procrastination has brought this upon me, the harried effect of jamming it all into the week before school. She is right, and in an insane way, I like it this way.
We live far enough away from our military base that we warrant a civilian doctor. It is the first time in 17 years that I have valet parking services included with my doctor visits. Our family practice physician is a young, fit , knowledgeable man who also has a specialty in sports medicine. He doesn't have children yet. In an effort to streamline the check up process for my family, they doubled up on appointments so we could get the youngest and middle child finished. The older child had his checkup last week. Yesterday was the second day in a week that my family, sans overworked military member, overtook the doctors office. The valet guy loves us. I am sure that we are the only vehicle driving up with Radio Disney playing on the radio. The receptionists love us, when we show up they get to change the channel on the tv from the doctors ESPN to Cartoon Network or Radio Disney. The nurse practitioner loves us, she is reminded of a time gone by in her life when she was raising boys. I think she also secretly watches me to see if I'm twitching. She finds us hilarious.
We weren't in the waiting room a minute and a half when the youngest proclaimed that he needed to use the bathroom. With clearance to enter in, he walked through the door and went directly to the bathroom on the other side. He didn't shut the bathroom door offering up all the sounds and visibility of a toilet paper commercial. Said receptionists and nurse P chuckled as they recounted the event to me.
In the weight and height room, youngest and middle child stretched to new heights, recounting to the world the height requirements for the rides at their favorite amusement parks. It sounded like they were ordering up a heaping of a few inches here or there so they would make the cut next time. Nurse P would have given them anything they wanted if she had her magic wand.
The highlight of the visit came when our doctor entered in to check out the kids. He has a great manner with them, asking them the important questions instead of me. This lends itself to way more disclosure than I would like, but makes the children feel very special. First up was middle child, "Ladies First" was the excuse from Doc. Are you looking forward to school? Yes. What is your favorite subject? Science. What do you play outside? Bike riding and kickball. Do you wear your helmet when you ride? Sometimes. How often do you brush your teeth? Once to twice a day. What is your favorite food?
(This is where the military child takes over) Can I chose from any country? (Doctor looks at me out of the side of his face, I shrug) Any country you want... He says. German Schnitzel! Replies the military child. (Doctor remarks how he has never had such an ingenious answer, mom vows to make schnitzel for dinner to reward brilliant child.)
Next up is youngest child. Are you looking forward to school? Sort of. What is your favorite thing to do at school? Recess, PE, freeze tag. What do you play outside? Baseball, bike riding, swimming. Do you wear your helmet? No. How often do you brush your teeth? UM...... What is your favorite vegetable? (This is the point where I cringe. Youngest has started avoiding vegetables. Had Doc asked this question to middle child, we would have scored 100 on the verbal portion of the test.) Well, it is one that has a lot of vitamin C, but I don't like it. (same sideways glance from doctor, I've started to avoid eye contact) It's okay, you can tell me, says the Doc. Broccoli. (fesses up the youngest. I don't say that I didn't know that broccoli has vitamin C.) That's interesting , says Doc, most people don't know that broccoli has vitamin C. Youngest just nods.
The rest of the check ups went smoothly with a noticeable grin on the doctor's face. He has his share of patients who are children and he takes care of a lot of families. We are not his normal family of patients. We are a confident and quirky group. We have worldly experience that others only dream of. We have our flaws, we have our cracks and we have some very strong personality traits. Judging from the raucous laughter while we were in the doctors office as well as the huge smiles that we left behind, we are welcome. The military family.
I can just see you all, and you would surely be welcome in my Oklahoma house, but the German food item would have to be brought with you, but I bet I would love it! We do have lots of brocolli, with lots of cheese, even more Vitamin C! LOL
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Thanks Lu!
I felt that hug all the way over here
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