Doctors vs Hospitals

Okay, it has been 2 weeks of crazy sick boys in our house. Peter got the stomach flu last week and was sick for 7 whole days. He was puking constantly and lost so much weight his diapers wouldn't fit. It's so sad to watch your little baby so sick, but he was really good about it and didn't cry much. Then on the eve of Hattie's huge birthday party that I had planned for her/me, Tanner started throwing up. So I had to call all the mom's in the morning and cancel. Hattie couldn't have cared less, but I was sad since I had everything ready, including the cake.

Tanner has taken a serious beating as well. He seems to be better today, but it's taken 6 days for him to hold any food down. I will say he is a pro at getting his puke into the bucket and not the floor or bed though; a hidden talent perhaps we may not have discovered otherwise :)

Anyway, at one point I had mentioned having to take him to the doctors. He was okay with that As Long as the dr was NOT at the hospital. Luckly, we didn't have to go anywhere.

Then yesterday Larry cut his hand really bad and had to go get stitches. I told Tanner Larry had gone to the hospital and Tanner got really concerned, like really, really concerned. He asked if they were going to cut his legs off. What? I asked him why they would cut his legs off, and he told me that's what they do at hospitals, they cut your legs off.

Oh, right. Then I remembered about 2 weeks ago I was at Michaels and Hattie left the store while I was taking care of the cart. I saw her as she was leaving through the second set of glass doors and I tried to yell at her. Obviously she couldn't hear me, so I ran as fast as I could to get her. The darn sliding doors were so slow and I could see her walking onto the icy road. My heart was in my throat because the parking lot was so busy and I was certain she was going to get hit and I couldn't reach her. Luckly, both drivers saw her and were able to stop. I grabbed her, hauled her back inside, and got upset. She didn't care. So when we got to the van I spanked her and she still didn't react. So I sat her down in her seat and told her how scared I was and how easy she could have been hit by a car and killed or sent to the hospital. And to add some substance to my explanation, I told her if she did end up going to the hospital they would probably have to cut off her arms and legs because the car would break them and then she would never be able to walk, dance, play with dolls, or eat a cookie with her hands. That hit home. She thought about it for days after and told me she wouldn't go on the road again so she wouldn't get her legs cut off.

Little did I know how big of an impression it made on Tanner as well. He now assumes that doctors are still okay, but hospitals mean getting your legs cut off. Oh well, hopefully it doesn't backfire any time soon, and I'll explain the truth when they are old enough to not run out on the road.