I'll admit it… I called him "The Boy Doctor" the first time we took Ben in for a checkup, but he's alright after all. He has a very good manner, and he's got less razor burn than the first time we met him. That razor burn had given off a sort of "just learning to shave" vibe I didn't dig.

The whole "doctor visit with sick baby" thing is pretty frustrating if a person doesn't pick up at the office.

You have to navigate a voice mail system that wants to offer every single option but the one that might be something like "If your child is sick and you're pretty worried because this is a first and his crying has rendered you incapable of concentrating long enough to tie your own shoelaces, let alone sit through a lengthy voice mail menu read into the phone by someone who thinks that you probably need a lesson in calming down because the world won't end if we take a minute or two to get to option 9, press 1 over and over and over until we decide to answer … keep pressing… you haven't had enough… go on… press again… his crying isn't so bad… press it again, damn your eyes!"

Then you go to the office and the receptionist doesn't like the idea of saying 'Same insurance as before?' and going off the file… she wants the insurance card, and wants to make a copy, and wants to make more copies, and wants to HOLD THE CARD UP AND EXAMINE IT AN INCH FROM HER NOSE because… hell… I don't know why. She took forever. And she had a sour look while she did it.

The doctor was fine, though.

The office pharmacist was another slow one… evidently the brother of the receptionist to judge from their shared sluggishness. No way to impart a sense of urgency. I left Al and Ben in the lobby and sat by his dispensary window tapping my foot while his assistant dealt with a Chinese man who didn't say his name clearly enough for her to understand, so she refused to ask again out of some sort of embarrassment or timidity and instead asked the pharmacist which prescription was for "an Asian guy." Moment of panic on my part as I realized there were two "Asian guys" sitting around outside, but the pharmacist had a moment of clarity about how close his "helper" was to poisoning two innocent men and pushed his assistant aside to untangle the matter.

Al eventually came back from the lobby with Ben, who started crying again, and that seemed to impart the urgency needed for the pharmacist to finish the prescription. Can't have sick kids sitting around crying and breaking the tranquility of a slow Saturday afternoon. Especially not with all those Asian guys wandering around taking each others' prescriptions home.

Ben's fine, by the way. We got him some motrin drops, which seemed to help, and he slept in our arms for a good chunk of the afternoon. He hasn't done that much since he was tiny, and it's a wonderful feeling holding him like that. Once he woke up from his nap, he was giggling and trilling again, which was also wonderful to hear.

We also bought a Diaper Genie today. We had a no-name diaper disposal thing, but it was awful and we hated it. Today we bought the brand. Expect pictures, because the sight of a sausage-link-like string of diapers six feet long is sure to be impressive.

Handy baby shower "Tip for Mom" from the Diaper Genie people:

Use the Diaper Genie® pail as a funny, but appropriately themed, centerpiece for the table! Take a clean, new Diaper Genie® and fill the top with flowers. Decorate the sides with stickers, paint or glue on magazine cut-outs!

Or tell the mom-to-be that the friendship is over by giving her your old one, still smeared with poo and reeking of last night's "puree of summer squash and spinach" as processed by junior.

Either way, laughs all around!

p.s. The Ben gallery has been updated a bit.