But She's Not Even Two Yet!

Jeremy wants me to preface this by saying this is not typical...

So Maeli had an appointment today with the ENT doctor at 4:10. I pick her up at 2 and didn't want to drive home to Albion just to basically turn around and come back to Pullman, so we opted to "kill some time" She was great, we had some snacks, hid out in the room of toys at my work (for the speech therapy kids) and played until 3:45 ish. The ENT is attached to the hospital, so we drove to the other side (that sounds bad, but it would have taken us a good two hours to walk up the hill to the other side of the hospital...a toddler and a pregnant lady...come on.) We used the potty, washed Maeli's face, took two trips in the elevator, and stopped at the pharmacy to buy more ear plugs. So we check in to her appointment at exactly 4:00..perfect, they have some books, some toys and even a movie...for sure 10 minutes worth of enjoyment. But there are 4 other people/sets of people already in the waiting room...hmmm....so we color for a while....4:15.....read some books....4:23....time for a movie? She wants to watch "Bears" aka Care Bears...ah-there's a bear in jungle book...lets put on that one...4:25...not the bears she's interested in....time to explore. There is a mom with two kids in the waiting room...one kid is probably 10, the other is about 18 months. Maeli decides to investigate Hannah the 18-month old--who by the way is strapped into an infant car seat and hanging out over every edge you can imagine. The 10 year old is rocking the car seat with her foot--Maeli decides to "help" and tips the car seat completely over Hannah and all. Luckily, as Hannah was obviously too big for the seat, she wasn't exactly fragile and kind of thought the tip over was fun, as did Maeli...Hannah's mom did not think it was fun. 4:30...Hannah's mom breaks out the candy as the 10 year old is getting kind of anxious...Twix...Maeli inches over doing her "want to see how cute I can be?" face...and does the sign for "please." That's not our candy Maeli, we'll get some candy after the Doctor looks in your ears...she is glued to the candy bar that is disappearing in chunks...Now- I'm not the kind of Mom that expects everyone to share everything they have with my daughter, no matter how cute she is, but most people would either offer some, try to be discrete, or hurry and eat it all gone, right? Not Hannah's mom, she says the word "candy" about 40 times in the next 10 minutes, Hannah now has chocolate everywhere, and they are down to one last chunk. Now, this whole time I've tried to distract Maeli with anything and everything in the office...some it worked for about 4 seconds at a time, but always back to the candy, with a "please." This lady, very obviously, takes the last chunk of candy bar, put it back in the wrapper, walks over to the garbage can and throws it away...I'm still not expecting her to give my child candy...but she's two...she doesn't want it less just because now its in the trash, only now I have to try to keep her from digging around in the garbage at the Doctor's office. 4:40--please let there be a miracle...they call Baby Hannah, but big sister decides she'll wait and watch some more movie. Ah, but first she has to show Maeli how to work the Water cooler...one hot spout, one cold spout...neither one is out of reach, insert some mom intervention, I might be exhausted, but I'm not going to let her burn her arm off...and the temper tantrum...water! water! water! "Maeli, that water is hot." Candy! Candy Candy! Are you kidding me...on the floor, kicking and whining...and then the lady opens the door, "Maeli!?" 4:52 Instantly she's up, she smiles, points to herself and says"Maeli." The lady (nurse Joey) says "come on back." I'm trying to pick up crayons and books and return the various toys we've stolen from Hannah, so I'm about 10 feet behind them...Maeli is just following along, walks right into the exam room and climbs into the chair. Smiling, with her hands in her lap. Nurse Joey asks me the questions....5:00 exactly, the doctor will be right in...5:02, Dr enters room, Maeli says "Hi." and turns her head so her ear is closer to him, he gets his spotlight looker, checks the ear...for about 40 seconds, she just sits there...all is well, other ear...she turns her head, and leans toward him....another 40 seconds, all is well...no complaining, no whining...what the heck? He says " see you in about 4 months" and she gives him a huge smile, waves bye and plops down out of the chair. Everyone on the way out got a wave and then she held my hand right until we got to the parking lot...at which point she ditched mom and ran head first towards all the cars who were getting ready to leave since it was now 5:08 and work was over. I caught her before she got squished and packed her to the car like a football since she doesn't fit anywhere, and then bribed her with a Binky (which she's only supposed to have at night) to let me buckle her in so we could go home...and of course, my little monster was sleeping like an angle in the back seat by the time we got home so I couldn't even be upset with her....but I ate the candy.