What We've Been Up To

Christmas-time is so exciting!!  

We started the season off a little rough though.

Maddie got sick over Thanksgiving break and is slowly but surely getting better.   

Friday she went in for her 4 year well check-up (a little late, I know)

She had to endure 3 shots and then the poor thing had to go to the lab to get blood drawn.  

We have to check her thyroid every year, so this was our annual visit.  

She did pretty well with the shots.  

I tried to prepare her ahead of time, so I told her it was going to hurt, but it wouldn't last too long and thinking about it hurting is usually a lot worse than the real thing.  

After the first poke she said, "Hey!" 

And then she squirmed and fought a little through the next two, but she never cried!

That was good, but I was dreading getting the blood drawn.  

It's never pleasant.

We had a long wait in the waiting room, but thanks to the ipad, she and I practiced recognizing letters using this app.  

(yay for free educational apps!)

Then it was time to get it over with.
Two different lab techs looked at both of her arms and then decided on the left one.
They stuck her with the needle and she fought them, moving the needle and missing the vein.
They bandaged her up and we had one more chance with the right arm. 

This time we all held on a little tighter.
They successfully got the needle into the vein and then we had to wait what seemed like forever to get enough blood for the test!!

We got it, and amazingly Maddie NEVER CRIED!!
She's the toughest little thing I've ever seen.
So brave!!

Now that all that is over with and she's feeling better we are ready to enjoy the Christmas season.
I'll share tomorrow a couple of fun advent activities we've began.  : )