Finally Home

Chris finally came home today - we are all very glad to have him back. The procedure he had today went well, but they didn't find any gallstones. An extra two days in the hospital to find no gallstones. Well, at least we know they're gone. He was really beginning to get frustrated with all the waiting and the discomfort of the hospital room, but now he's home and hopefully can rest.

I brought Chris home about 7 pm since we had to wait for the doctor to clear him. I got everyone settled and decided to head to Walgreens to get his prescription for pain pills. Both the boys wanted to go, but once I said, "I'm NOT buying toys" Brandon quickly changed his mind. Matthew, however wanted to go. Against my better judgment, I let him.

In the car on the way over, I stressed to him that we weren't buying toys - we were going to get Daddy's medicine and come home. He assured me he understood. Once we pulled in the parking lot, he immediately asked to visit the toy aisle. I said no, but he countered with: "I won't get a toy, Mama, I promise."

So we went in Walgreens and dropped off the prescription. We had about a 20 minute wait (which is 40 minutes in real time), so we started wandering the aisles. Eventually one runs into the toy aisle. Matthew was pretty good at just looking at the toys, but the longer he was around the temptation, the more I could tell it was going to be difficult to extract him from the toy aisle. I decided to make a clean break and drag him to the shampoo aisle (my favorite) and as a result of this, he said very loudly: "I AM A LITTLE KID AND I WANT A TOY!" I was not amused at this.

I was further unamused when he announced a few minutes later that he had to go potty. And he had to potty bad. I hate taking him to public restrooms because he touches everything. Everything. I shudder at the thought of taking him in there, but when a 4-year-old has to go, he has to go.

Abandoning my shopping basket at the door, we went in and I assisted (restrained his hands from touching anything) him in getting to the potty. We waited. I was basically suspending him above the potty in an effort to keep his germ exposure down. Nothing happened. I encouraged him to go - this was his chance - you can potty now. Still nothing happened. I looked him in the face and asked, "Do you have to potty?" He grinned real big and said, "No, I was just joking." I actually wanted to growl at him.

Finally the prescription was ready and I paid for it and quickly headed toward the door. Matthew walked out holding my hand and in his most pleasant voice remarked, "Now, wasn't that a good time at Walgreens?"

No, not really.