As Momma Beamed and Stuck Her Chest Out

You know people love cute babies, but do you know what they love to coo over even more? Cute babies who eat their veggies, that's what. Chase and I spent a few hours at the hospital yesterday making our rounds (more on that later). After the long morning appointment, I decided that we should pick up the meds at the pharmacy before heading to lunch and finishing up the afternoon with yet another clinic visit. Apparently, everybody at the hospital had the same idea because the pharmacy was PACKED! I loved how, even though there were a few empty seats available, most men, who could be easily identified as either active military or retirees from their demeanor and haircuts even though they weren't in uniforms, chose to stand up waiting for their numbers to be called and left the chairs for young children and women. Either their mommas or the military instilled this kind of chivalry, and for that I was grateful and proud to be a part of this community. To be honest, they could just be too tired of sitting and waiting, but I'm going to stick with my original thought. Anyhow, I knew from our number (20th in line) that we probably would be spending most of Chase's lunch time in the pharmacy, so I pulled out a container of her packed veggies. Chase loves her steamed green beans. She will shove all that is put on her tray in her mouth in minutes and then ask for more (she's beginning to use a sign for "more" now, even though it's not always used correctly. Most of the time she signs more when she just wants something, but I'm way too excited about that fact that she's actually picking it up!). I sat her up on my lap, put a container of steamed cut green beans and carrots in front of her, and she went to work. While she was cracking me up picking over the carrots to get to her green beans, everyone in the pharmacy found entertainment in my baby. By the time I looked up to meet those eyes, probably about half a cup of green beans was gone and I heard a lot of "that's terrific!," "she loves to eat!," and "she really loves her veggies!" I was literally beaming. I knew my kid was an awesome little piglet, but it was so much more fun when there were other people around to share my enthusiasm. A few people came up to ask how old she was and told me I was doing a great job with her. It was nice to hear. I'm always proud of my baby, but she definitely got some extra green beans for dinner because she made momma looked extra cool. Thanks, Kiddo. Oh, and she LOVED brown rice with black eye peas that they served at the DFAC. I thought I had died and gone to a good mommy heaven.

Now about our hospital visit. I checked with Chase's doctor to see if she would need any extra meds or shots for our trip to Thailand and the good doc referred us to Landstuhl for the most up-to-date info. We really loved the doctor that we saw and had a lot to talk about as he just came back from a recent visit there. As it turned out, Chase was too young for all but one shot they recommended for travelers to the region. Fine by me, I thought. There was no good time to have a cranky baby on my hands anyway. Then he asked if I had had those shots we talked about. For some reason, I just never thought I needed them. He told me that I was considered high risk of getting sick there because, unlike most tourists who would probably stick with hotel and selected restaurant foods, I would jump right back to eating whatever "local foods" my family was eating and wouldn't think twice about it. Very true and exactly how I got sick the last time I went home. So now we both needed shots. But when the immunization nurse looked at the doctor's order, she told me that Chase's one shot could be done at her 12-month well baby visit next month. You should have seen the Child. She was literally dancing on my lap when the nurse said that and cracked everybody up with her celebratory squeals. So I came home with two sore arms and Chase didn't even get one. I'm sure she cherishes every single minute of it. Tricky little monkey. It was such a wonderful day-out for us. I'm always petrified of dragging her around town and causing her to miss most of her nap times, but yesterday she couldn't have behaved any better had I bribed her with chocolate syrup. What a great baby!