Doctors and Needles and Tattoos and Such

Last week, when I told Charlotte she had a doctors appointment, she immediately said. "Nope, no shots." Oh I know the feeling, kid. I didn't know for sure if she needed shots, so I couldn't assuage her fears. But I could bribe. Wholeheartedly and shamelessly.

"If you have to have shots," I told her, "we will get a new princess doll at the store."

She's no dummy and immediately started to negotiate the giant seven-pack of princess dolls that Target just started carrying for the holidays. Go big, or go home. I can appreciate that.

"One doll and maybe a treat."

She sighed and made a face. She never mentioned the dolls again, but continued to remind me whenever the doctor came up, "NO shots!"

She was a trooper, but I can see that she takes after her dear old mom in this category. Where brother and sister can muster up the courage to sit still, take their shots, wail a bit and move on, little Charlotte fusses and worries, flails and thrashes, screams and hollers. She earned her doll (and the nurse and I earned a stiff drink).

Oh, I feel ya sister. I have a real and true needle phobia. I actually fought with all my nurses over having an IV during my deliveries. No lie, I'd rather have no drugs for labor than have an IV put in. It's a miracle I have my ears pierced. My mother should appreciate it; if I didn't I'd have tattoos and at least a nose piercing. Likely my tongue and belly button, too. Hey, I turned eighteen in 1997, that's what we grunge era kids did. All my friends celebrated their eighteenth to mid-twenties birthdays with extra holes and ink.

I probably would have chosen an awful tribal tattoo or some symbol of the sorority I joined and then quit two years later. I could not have chosen a permanent tattoo well at twenty. It's debatable I could choose well at thirty-three. And yes, I do regularly think about the tattoos I would get if I wasn't a chicken. My sisters-in-law have offered to pay to get me a tattoo, if we all decided on the same one, but that hasn't happened yet. Two things some people are shaking their heads over right now: I'm preoccupied with tattoos and I was once in a sorority. I know.

It looks like Charlotte won't be wanting extra holes and ink, but Lily is already asking for her ears pierced, has been for two years. I was ready to let her this summer, but Daddy said he wasn't ready yet. It seemed like such a grown up thing to do, he said. It does. I think I'm rather glad he didn't want her to.That one is already too self-sufficient.

What would you get if you got a tattoo?