Wednesday afternoons. We gather as a family and play Pac Man at the local hot spot.

Well sort of...
The Pac Man thing is sort of true. 
Calling it a hot spot...a half-truth.


So every Wednesday afternoon, you will find us at this location.

This is most exciting place on Earth. Comparable to Disney World. 

My kids, seemingly out of nowhere, have developed pretty bad seasonal allergies. Corbin's bout last year was so bad that it sent us to the ER because his eyes were almost swollen shut from some sort of environmental allergen. That was a rough couple of weeks. His sleep was non-existent (and mine), his breathing was labored, not good. Devyn has had her fun with allergies as well. Though not as intense as Corbin's, she has been affected for a number of years. She has always had these insane, drippy sneezes that stretch to her ankles (sorry for the visual). 

I do not have allergies, but have been told by many that it is miserable, and makes you so cranky that you might want to inflict pain on the closest person within arms reach. 

In short, the above picture is of our doctor's office. We have been doing allergy shots to sort of "challenge" their systems a little bit each week so that their bodies can sort of "block" the histamine response when it comes in contact with their specific allergen. Corbin gets injections in both arms, Devyn only one. They both have allergy shots every Wednesday afternoon, at 3:30, for oh hum, 5 YEARS! OK, it is every week for the first year or so I am told, and then it spaces out a bit. 2 weeks, then a month. Eventually. 

 Allergy shot protocol: they get the shots, then we wait 30 minutes to see if either of them has a reaction.  It doesn't sound like a long time, but I swear sometimes 30 minutes turns onto 40+ because they forget about us and think we are fixtures in the room. I do however try to be creative during our waiting time, although it can get a tad dicey... 

Post-injection we:

• play Pac-Man.(hence the opening title). They have an old school game in the office play area, which works 25% of the time. Frustrating for all.
• play Skip-Bo (this game is in my car permanently, specifically for Wednesdays)
• play air hockey (although the tables is about a 100 years old and barely works. Blowing on the puck helps, but gets me winded.)
• try to figure out any other game to play

On this particular day, I showed off the one card trick that I know. The kids think I am a superstar now with mad skills.

IF THE ABOVE THINGS FAIL, ONE or BOTH OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS MAY OCCUR:

• Corbin and Landon will stop, drop, and wrestle, which usually leads me to threaten punishments. Not sure the fascination with boys and wrestling. I am pretty sure I would die if Devyn and her BFF Maraeka ever stopped, dropped, and wrestled in the middle of the Portland Mall.
• My 3 kids will exchange verbal abuse, which again, I threaten with punishments.

For today's post: you will see their point of view from our Wednesday tradition. I included Landon, because although he does not get any shots, he still gets dragged there every week, so he is absolutely part of the Pediatric Associates experience. I asked each child to snap a picture of something and write up a caption. Landon is first.

Landon- "I take a picture of this because I like Star Wars"

Landon- "I took a picture of Corbin because I like him"

Corbin- "I like walking in the door and running over to the fish tank and looking at all the fish. I really want their fish tank. It looks like the fish tank is 50 gallons. And  I get to see it every week when I go to allergy shots."

Corbin-"I love looking inside the fish tank and looking at all the fish. There are striped ones, plain ones, dotted ones, colorful ones, and beautiful ones. They are all different shapes and sizes."

Devyn- "This is my least favorite part of allergy shots. Getting the shot. It doesn't hurt that much but I just can't stand needles period. I've gotten 14 shots in the last 14 Wednesdays after school."

Devyn- "This is my favorite part of allergy shots. Getting stickers after the shot. I love picking out my two stickers. They have different categories such as design your own police puppy, Thomas the Tank Engine, Wonder Pets, Dora the Explorer, and puppies."

End goal: free of the allergen misery as adults. See you in 2016.