my ovaries say "hi"

Someone better start working on those step-grandchildren for me stat. I'm just sayin'.

I started my work day out today with a toddler. A toddler whose mom unfortunately had to bring the other two kids--a boy of about 7 and a girl around 3--with her. This is usually a recipe for...well, not disaster, because I am so freakin good at my job, but for a lot more difficulty than might otherwise be. So, the thing is, I need to get these little patients of mine to sleep while I test, which involves a group effort between me and the parent(s). When siblings are along, especially siblings not old enough to be, if not actually helpful, at least quiet and not competing for the parent's attention, things can get sticky. This was compounded in today's circumstances by it being 7:30 in the morning. My last resort--stick the siblings out in the reception area and beg the office staff to entertain them for half an hour--was not available, because well, there's no office staff that early in the am.

So we get the little one set up to test, no longer crying and cuddled in his mom's lap where she's enticing him to take the leche, lights down in the room. I'm at my computer. The older boy is playing fairly quietly on the floor and the little girl comes up to me. She's trying to tell or ask me something, but I can't quite understand her. Partially because I think she's more fluent in Spanish than English, and partly because she's, y'know, just three. So, wanting to keep her from going over to her mom, who *just* has the patient starting to settle and take the bottle, I held out my arms to her. And she climbed right up into my lap.

Her mom and the baby are on video, so I show her on the computer, panning in so she can see their faces, and this fascinates her. And because my computer chair swivels, I start rocking her a little. She puts her little head right down onto my shoulder. OMG. I about died of the sweetness. I swear to you, as god is my witness, I could feel my pituitary gland start pumping out the FSH. "C'mon, Andrea, I'm sure we've got some semi-viable eggs in there!" I hold her like that for twenty minutes, rocking and cuddling and letting her look at what's on my screen, till her mom finally gets the baby off to sleep.

I can't even imagine a nicer way to start my day off. And while I'm well aware that someday that adorable little three year old is gonna be an obnoxious teenager with a nasty mouth on her, giving her mom all kinds of agita (until she turns back into the lovely young woman which I'm also sure she'll be), that's the beauty of being the grandmother, yo. You only have to deal with the best parts. I'm telling my ovaries and empty uterus that right now.

xoxo