Boo for Humanitarians

The summer before Spencer was born (the summer of 2007) I was working in a clinic doing private speech therapy with children.  I had planned on staying long term, however, I hated that job and left after 2 months. But that's another story for another day.  While I was working there the front desk receptionist was pregnant (due like 1 month before me) and an occupational therapist was pregnant (due like 1 month after me).  We were all having our first babies. 

One day the conversation turned to pediatricians and if we had found one yet.  None of us had.  We were joking that we should just look through all of the files at the clinic and see what place was listed most often in the kids paperwork.  Then that joke became reality.  One day, when I had like 5 out of 8 kids cancel on me (one of the reasons I hated that job), I flipped through a bunch of  paperwork and saw one pediatric place listed more than anywhere else.  This pediatric office had 4 locations and over 20 doctors total.  I went on their web site, liked what I saw and decided we would go there.  I was looking through the doctor profiles and I really liked the experiences of this one doctor.  Then I saw that she owned a basset hound and the deal was sealed.  How could we not go to the pediatrician with a basset hound?  (For those of you who don't know- my childhood pets were beagles {Peppermint Patty and Sam} and basset hounds {Bessie and Bunny}).

It was the best decision ever.  It validated the fact that you should always make important choices based on pet ownership.  She has been our pediatrician for the last 5 years and we have been extremely happy with her.  She got us through Spencer and his high-needs, colicky infancy.  She was there through the lip stitches (that she took out), the glued nose and all the other bumps, bruises, shots and illnesses.  When Elliott was in the hopsital with sepsis she called us every single day, for 12 days, to check on him.  And she went above and beyond with the whole liver disease crisis, calling us at home and letting me just cry on the phone to her.

When Spencer was 2 years old Michael's grandmother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  She was given a very short amount of time to live.  Spencer and I were in Flagstaff for a few days when Michael called to say that his grandmother had passed away.  I told him I was so sorry.  Then he called back an hour later to tell me that we had received a letter in the mail saying that our insurance would no longer cover our pediatrician.  Then I started crying.  It turned out to be a big mistake (our insurance never could explain why these fake letters were sent out), but I was a mess thinking we couldn't go to her any more.

And now here we are in 2012.  Elliott has an appointment tomorrow for a weight check and to get his 3rd DTaP.  It will be our last ever appointment with her.  She has accepted a position at Phoenix Children's Hospital to work with homeless children.  Oh how I wish she was moving to Bevery Hills to work with rich kids so that I could at least be mad at her and blame her for being greedy.  But no, she had to go and pull this humanitarian stuff and be all do-good.  I told her that we were seriously considering pretending to be homeless so we could continue to see her.  And then I apologized for making a tasteless joke.

Over the years we have given her little gifts, mostly gift cards to various places.  I wanted to get her a little something as a token of our appreciation.

We were at the mall last weekend and I thought that some hand care items would be appreciated since doctors wash their hands so much.

We went to Lush and bought some cuticle butter,

and little hands (a hand cream in a bar).

 

Spencer and I went to Hobby Lobby tonight so we could get a nice little box to put these things in.  The first thing we saw when we got there was this:

Yup.  Hobby Lobby has Christmas out.  So of course we walked down the ornament aisle.  And of course we saw this little beauty:

How could I not buy the basset hound ornament for the pediatrician I picked because of her basset hound?

There was also a daschund one that Spencer has made me promise we will go back and buy.  It was pretty cute.

We found a nice little box to put everything in,

so she'll have a nice little package to open during the appointment tomorrow.

I may or may not have told her in the card that we happen to really like the food at the cafeteria at Phoenix Children's so she shouldn't be surprised when we semi-stalk her at her new job.  Is that creepy of me?

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On a TOTALLY unrelated note, Michael gets really annoyed when I pull a sticker off a piece of fruit and leave it on the counter.  I fully intend on going back and throwing it away after I wash the fruit, but I never do.

  Just because I am a loving wife I pulled all of the stickers off of all the peaches and pears and lined them up on the counter for him to find when he got home from work.  He silently pulled them up and threw them away.

It's the little things that make a marriage work.