Dreading it.

Yesterday we had round one of visits to the Health Department. Since we're probably about to move to Durham County where the public services are a lot more crowded and inconvenient, thought I'd go ahead and try to get in some more vaccinations for the kids, since we are of course perpetually behind. For some reason this time they wouldn't let all three kids get appointments together, so Julia was the only victim yesterday. We had to wait quite a long time and it was during naptime, but everything was going fine till she actually got the shot. Then there were lots of angry screams. She even calmed down pretty quickly and was quite for a minute or two, then all the frustration of missing nap and not wanting to be there came out and she screamed and screamed and screamed while the ladies gave us awkward smiles and secretly wondered what was wrong with this maniac child as they tried to finish our paperwork. Not too much fun, but we made it.

All the while, of course the boys asked me several times, "Just Julia's getting shots, right?" and though I know it's their turn tomorrow, I assure them it's just her because I don't want them to dread Wednesday....the way I am! See my boys aren't like the way I thought kids were, in many ways, but for one thing, when they get hurt, they don't get sad and hug Mommy--they get *mad.* They don't want anyone to touch them and they want to lash out at anyone that tries to even talk to them. So as much of a scene as we made with Julia's screaming yesterday, I have a feeling it's going to be even worse Wednesday. I do have a plan though. We haven't been to the library since the fall so I'm going to take them after their appointment and hopefully the excitement over that will help them get over the bad part of our outing. Anyone else have ideas of how to make getting shots less stressful?

Taking advantage of Orange County services isn't the only reason we're getting shots right now. We are actually thinking of sending Joshua to kindergarten in the fall. Definitely haven't decided anything, but we're trying to get prepared so if we do decide to go that route, we won't have to scramble to catch up his vaccinations and get his medical report ready. Of course, I'm torn. I'd rather have him home still while he's little, but from talking to those that are in the school system, I think now may be the best time to try public school because the longer we wait, the more everyone at school is accustomed to how that environment works and the more unprepared Joshua will be for adapting there. In some schools, kids are already making set groups of friends in first grade and knowing how tough it is for Joshua to be in a new situation, I don't want to make things even more difficult for him.

So our plan is to take a tour of the school this summer and see what we think after that. If we do start public school and regret the decision, we can always take him out and I can easily do kindergarten at home.

Well I'm off to see what else I can pack! We're moving most of our stuff out in 3 short days!!