As part of Kiddo's two year check-up, the doctor suggested, since we have insurance, that we should get some routine blood work done, specifically to check Kiddo's lead levels. I believe this is more a feature of where we live as opposed to any direct concern about development.
Having recently had my blood taken, and having recently watched my child get some shots, I was not keen on this idea. I debated back and forth the merits of knowing, vs not getting her stuck, and even prayed about it, and decided that it would be okay to have the blood work done.
This morning I felt it only fair to give her a brief heads-up, and told her at breakfast (about 30 minutes before we left) what we were doing today. She spent the next 30 minutes living life, with brief interludes of remembering that we were going to the "doctor," (okay, a lab technician, but I'm working with Kiddo's world here) and her crying pitifully claiming "she can't look at my arm." And sadly, I couldn't tell her that it wouldn't happen, I could only tell her that she'd be okay.
The waiting room was more of the same. She'd be fine, then start wandering around (a distress signal) insisting "she can't look at my arm." At a calmer moment she looked in our bag, and found a princess pull-up that she started carrying around as a comfort item... Then we actually went in. I had brought a video for her to watch, but frankly, she was more interested in watching the man put the band around her arm, and look for a good vein. And he pricked her, and I didn't even know because she didn't even react. When he started filling the little vials, she squawked briefly. He laughed at her delayed reaction. Then she watched him fill up his quota, and put a cat bandage on. Then he gave her princess sticker, and she put that on her arm too. She clearly had no sense of one serving a different purpose than the other. And she was completely fine.
Which means the promise of the donut store was now unneeded, but we went any way.
