Dentist....need I say more

You know that saying:

"Life is a marathon, not a sprint"?

I feel as though I have run three marathons this week, but today's was the worst, and it's only 12:30pm!

Carter woke at 2am Wednesday morning with croup. He gets it quite severe and often ends up being admitted to hospital for a couple of days. We try to manage it at home but know there is a point where he needs to go to the Emergency Room.

This night, we managed to stay home. Aside from Tony, no one got any sleep, but we got to stay home.

Generally croup improves significantly come morning, but not with Carter. Come breakfast, it still was quite persistent. Later that day, we took him up to Gosford Hospital as we knew come night, he would spiral quickly and it's much easier to treat before it gets too severe.

About 7pm, he was able to go home with another few doses of medication to get him through the night.

Come Thursday, Mr. Tarts was too tired and cranky for pre-school. He has stayed this way since.

It seems that 24 hours of no sleep has left Carter VERY temperamental!

This morning Tony had a dentist appointment. I picked him up from school and we headed to the dentist. Once there, I was thrilled to see an empty waiting room. I think after the last few days I had had, Heavenly Father kindly cut me a break there.

All was well until we got called in. Tony sat in the dentist chair and Carter sat in the chair beside me....for about two minutes!

He was in fine form. Rubbing his eyes til they turned red whilst insisting he wasn't tired and DID NOT need a nap. Picking at mosquito bites that he CANNOT seem to leave alone so they now resemble cigarette burns. At one point he spent about sixty seconds telling me he wants a new, real mum. I agreed that sounded great.

It was NOT pretty. I was tempted to bribe him with a lollipop I had in my handbag pocket for emergencies (i.e. grocery shopping), but realized I was at the dentist and didn't want to look like an even worse parent.

So...I rode it out. When you hit rock bottom and all your pride has flown out the waiting room door, you have nothing to lose anyway.....or so I thought.

After the 25 minute appointment (which seriously felt like an hour), we were getting ready to leave. Tony was wonderful - a star patient. The kind dentist and her assistant said goodbye to Tony and said to Carter:

"You look exhausted Carter. I bet we know what Mummy is going to do with such a tired boy when she gets home. Straight to bed I bet."

To which my darling son replied;

"No, not bed. When we go home Mummy will kick my butt!"

I actually choked on my own saliva. I don't know where he gets these choice phrases from, but I know he certainly pulls them out at the perfect time for him, which coincidentally seems to be the most humiliating time for me.

It's a marathon. And I feel like I am running it stark naked.