What I learned today...

1. My children will ALWAYS wait until it's two days before payday and the budget is stretched so thin you can see through it to have a weird medical emergency.

2. They will also always wait to have that emergency until our pediatrician is closed for the day and therefore we must pay the higher co-pay to go to Instacare.

3. When your child is in agony numbers 1 and 2 don't matter.

4. Trying to help a 9 year old who is maybe six inches shorter than you and who cannot walk, while simultaneously trying to keep his 6 and 3 year old sister from getting hit by a car in the parking lot is not fun.

5. Just because I live with a man in a wheelchair doesn't make me automatically good at pushing someone in a wheelchair, judging by the number of people, chairs and door frames I ran into. Not to mention the blood pressure machine I almost wiped out by starting to wheel Jake off before they could remove the cuff...

6. It is always frustrating when you can't get a concrete diagnosis. "Wait and see..." is terrifying when you have no faith in your ability to handle medical crises.

7. It might be a hernia. Or the worst case of constipation ever.

8. Talking about "stool softeners" is confusing for a very literal child. "Can't we just use a pillow?"

9. Explaining that flatulence is the same thing as a fart will end the conversation. They are too busy giggling to ask anymore questions.

10. Some days you just can't quite believe the crap you have deal with as a parent...

11. I have an amazing Dad who is willing to drop everything and come help me physically, financially, and emotionally. I do not know what we would do without him sometimes. (That isn't something I just learned today. I've known it for awhile. But it still makes me so humble and grateful every time I am reminded of it.)