now we're talkin' deux

Here is a sample of a conversation Rachel and I have had several times a day since her last doctor's appointment, when she got her flu immunization booster shot...

Rachel: Poke!

Mommy: You got a poke?

Rachel: Doctor.

Mommy: Yes, the doctor gave you a poke.

Rachel: Ah eee.

Mommy: And then you were all finished.

Rachel: Sticker.

Mommy: And then you got a sticker?

Rachel: Ah eee. Bye bye.

Mommy: Yes, and then we said, "Bye bye, Doctor."

We practice before we go to the doctor, on my mother's advice. I tell Rachel that we are going to the doctor, and the doctor will give her a 'poke,' and every time I say 'poke,' I stick her with my fingernail in her thigh, and then I say, 'and then you get a sticker!!' We focus on the sticker. When we went for her flu booster, she got anxious and was yelling "no, no, no, no..." and shaking her head furiously, before the shot, through the shot, and after the shot. When she realized it was over, she cried for about 15 seconds and then demanded a sticker. That's my girl! And she's been talking about it ever since. She even gives me a poke, her daddy, her stuffed animals...everyone in our house is fully immunized by now...