Wow, the day that could have been WAY oversheduled.

A few weeks ago I had to pick up Sonny Boys Rx from the doc for refill and there was a note that he needed to be seen before the next time they refilled it. No problem, a week or two later I called the office and scheduled an appointment for this a.m. While I was at it I called Igor's opthamologist and scheduled a check-up appointment for him (they keep a close eye -no pun intended- on him due to the shape of his eyes) and it happened the best appointment time would be the pm of today and give us just enough time to get home and make it to Sonny Boy's baseball game. What is it they say about the best laid plans of mice and men....

I ended up cancelling Sonny Boy's appointment earlier in the week. Just before we left for vacation he developed a nasty hacking cough. I was pretty sure it would clear on it's own, however Hubby is somewhat of a worry wart and insisted I take Sonny Boy into the doc. The doc wasn't totally convinced of what was wrong either but did write a Rx for an antibiotic and said there would be no need to bring him in for the aforementioned ADHD med check up. So that appointment was cancelled. Great only one appointment for the day and a ball game, the schedule was clearing.

Around noon today I loaded up the kids and we headed into St. Louis for the appointment. I wanted to stop in a town a long the way and have my eyelashes dyed (more on that later) and Sonny Boy wanted to buy a puzzle kit at the craft store. The previous one had kept him busy for HOURS so I figured I could afford $5 of entertainment for him. So we go to the salon, and to the craft store and then head on into the city. Now I left the neighboring town which is a good 35 mins closer to St. Louis than where we live, however construction and traffic had me pulling into the parking garage at Children's with just 10 minutes or so to spare before the appointment and still needing to find a parking space in a jammed garage and splash a little make-up on as I was bare-faced from the quick salon visit. So I did a mad dash of cosmetic in the van and hustled the kids into the building. When I was walking in I noticed a family carrying an armload of boxes, thought it was a little odd, but figured it was some sort of medical equipment, but when I got into the main lobby there was a line and a pallet of the same boxes with a woman handing them out. Strange, but we were running behind so we went to the clinic and signed in. While standing in line to sign in the woman in line behind me had the boxes and I noticed most of the people in the waiting room had the boxes as well so I asked what they were. It appears a toy company had sent a huge donation of ZuZu pet hamsters and gear to the hospital for delivery. Well, heck, I figured I'd get in on this gig, so after signing in I marched the boys down to the line and got a set for each kid. We then went back to the waiting room and waited. While waiting more workers came out from the back of the clinic with different non-descript boxes that were reported to have glow teddy bears in them. I wasn't going to claim them but when nobody seemed particularly thrilled with those I claimed a box of those too - there were two bears in the box. So here I am with 5 fair sized boxes, two boys, and a purse. The doctor appointment lasted WAY longer than expected. Two and a half hours to be exact and necessitated going in and out of the waiting room several times shuffling kids and boxes each trip. By the end of the appointment the kids and I were both starving and thirsty and knowing there were no drive-thrus nearby I could navigate to I decided to purchase some food at the hospital cafetiria that we could run with and eat in the van. By this point I knew we wouldn't make Sonny Boy's 6:00 baseball game, but the idea of sitting there and watching the kids dawdle with food in the their wound up and tired state was more than I could bear. So grabbing milk, PB&J's for the kids and some sort of turkey wrap and Coke for me we headed for the van, all three of us loaded down with as much as our respective bodies could carry through two elevator changes and a small maze of corridors. I was in near panic going through the parking garage as I couldn't actually hang on to the boys, but they did well marching behind me like little ducks all the way to van. Needless to say the trip home was long as well as we hit the tail end of rush hour and a construction to boot.

Sonny Boy was disappointed that he missed his baseball game, but soon got over it once we got the boxes opened and he discovered what was in them. I had been very secretive about their contents, just telling the kids I wasn't sure, and it would be a surprise when we got home. Thankfully the other parents in the waiting room wisely kept their boxes sealed as well. We came home there was a ton of loot for these pretend hamsters. Little houses, tunnels, exercise wheels, cars, skateboards. Geez, real hamsters don't have it this good. So the first hour home was spent constructing the animated pet hamster mansion. I will say it was generous of the company to donate the toys to the hospital, and I imagine kids that are were actually IN the hospital all had first pick at the stuff before they started passing out to those of us who were just in for clinic visits. However my hunch is that these toys were seconds, one of the little houses was crazily deformed, there was no display packaging - just brown boxes. Some of the directions on the pieces didn't quite match with what they were supposed to be. Momma always said don't look a gift horse in the mouth - or was that a battery operated hamster? Either way thanks to the company that donated them as it made getting home from a long dull day much more fun.

Igor's eye appointment went fine. It does appear he needs a stronger lens in the right eye but not too much stronger than what is already there. The doctor didn't say but I think it's just a matter of fine tuning the Rx now since Igor can communicate so much better and things are not such a look and see with an educated guess.

I did have my eyelashes dyed today. I've been wanting to do this for a while in hopes that it would help my laziness when it comes to putting make-up on. I'm terrible about putting on my face most any day and mascara does seem to make a big difference. My eyelashes are fairly long, however also fairly blond. The dye did seem to make them darker but I'm not sure if it is something I will continue to keep doing, while they are darker they of course are not thicker like mascara tends to make them. I'm reserving judgement on them though for a few days.