30 Days of Thanksgiving: November 8

Day 8: I am thankful for "training" times with my children. With four kids under the age of 5, most of my days involve some sort of "training" opportunities, which wear me out. Teaching small children tasks like picking up toys, using the toilet, making their beds, etc., etc., etc. requires copious amounts of time and even more consistency. One area that I struggle with in training the kids is how to behave in public. It is a constant struggle of "No, don't touch that," "we do not run indoors", "Stay by the ________ (cart, stroller, van, etc.)", and on I could go. Today I did something I have been dreading for a couple of weeks, I took Evie to the hospital for her follow-up x-ray (to be sure that her pneumonia is indeed gone). I knew the actual x-ray would not take long so I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of dropping off and picking up the other kids from someone else's house knowing that upon pickup Evie would likely dissolve into an emotional heap because she did not get to say hi to ______, play with ______, or even say goodbye to _______. So I packed up the double stroller, my extra "diaper bag" (a large tote that I use to hold one of each thing I could possibly need for the kids and my wallet), and the kids; and we headed to the hospital. We got to there, and the kids all obeyed very well while I got the stroller loaded up. Things continued to go well as we got through patient registration and then walked back to the x-ray desk. I brought the Kindle along to read to the kids in the waiting room but we only made it through the first page of the "Pokey Little Puppy" before they called us back. Reagan talked to anyone and everyone we saw, Evie (said while standing on her tip-toes with her arms up over her head) "got to stand very still like a ballerina statue while the doctors took special pictures of the bones in her chest", Amelia played peek from the front seat of the double stroller and Sofi napped in her carseat at the back of the stroller. Very thankful that today was one of those days where I'm reminded that the time it takes to train my children really does pay off! :o)