April 4, 2008

PT for Everyone!

I once had to take the girls with me to PT, but it was only for about 10 minutes. Mr. BBM showed up and took them home before they had the chance to do any serious damage. Since then, they’ve asked if they could go along with me from time to time. It’s like they think they serve ice cream there or something. Yesterday, they had to go for the full almost two hours. It was as if I brought live entertainment to the PT room.

When we arrived, it was packed. Spring must be surgery season. Four tables were filled up leaving one for me. Several people were also circuiting through their exercise routines. I set the girls up on a low padded table that no one ever uses. Mickey Mouse Park came out of Lil C’s bag along with all of her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters. Big I got to work on her homework.

Lil C felt it necessary to unpack her entire entertainment bag so in no time at all the rather large table was littered with Dora diapers, Mickey characters and a random Teddy Graham or eight. Like the angel that she is, Big I was quiet and completed her homework without making a peep. Then there was Lil C.

Always needing to be the center of attention, she started talking and loudly right away. She had to confirm everything that was happening to Mommy’s knee. "You laying down now Mommy?"; "You putting heat on your knee Mommy?"; "You all done yet Mommy?" she asked me every 10 minutes or so. The other patients smiled with amusement at her boisterous and talkative manner. When my PT asked me if I wanted some reading material, I refused. "I left it at home for a reason," I told him. "She could turn into a little devil in no time at all."

Things got entertaining when Big I finished up her homework and got out her two new library books. One of them was a dinosaur book. Big I began turning the pages and showing the pictures to Lil C. It was super quiet at the time so Lil C’s very loud, "Oh Wow! Look at the Dio-Whore" echoed around the room. Everyone sort of stopped what they were doing and looked at her and then at me.

"Yes," I confirmed from the floor where I was doing some stretching, "she said ‘dio-whore’. That’s what she calls them." An eruption of laughter took hold of the room and even the poor guy fresh from surgery laughed until he almost cried. Realizing she was a "hit," Lil C continued to talk about "dio-whores" for the next 15 minutes.

Then she made friends. One of my PT buddies came in with her older daughter and they made the mistake of engaging Lil C in conversation. She spent the next hour talking to them loudly, telling them all about her Mickey guys, sharing the fact that she had burped with them, and even going so far as to make her Mickey characters use the one woman’s head as a sliding board.

She also played some April Fool’s jokes which she learned like a pro from her sister earlier in the week and told several people "you have a bunch of bugs on your head." She was a real hit.

With 15 minutes left in my routine, she decided she was bored and ready to go home. She packed the important things up into her bag, leaving behind her diapers and random Teddy Grahams and dragged her filled up bag towards the door.

"I am going home," she announced with a pout on her face. She spent the last 10 minutes of our visit to PT glaring at me as I walked backwards on the treadmill. When I was finally done, there was Teddy Graham carnage to be cleaned from the table, and two very bored kids. I highly doubt there will be much interest in accompanying me back to PT anytime soon. It’s certainly lost its allure for them.

It hasn’t for me though. I hit 154 degrees yesterday. Only one more to go.