Surviving the Doctors Office with Lots of Littles

Most of the time I am very blessed to have a hubby with a flexible work schedule who can help me TONS with our kids. {If he couldn't, I don't think I would survive our little blessings}

Over the past few weeks, he's been able to stay with 3 of the kids 2 separate times while I took a mere 1 child to the doctor. This week however, he already had a conference to go to when our middle daughter needed to take her turn. I preped myself as much as possible and then headed out DURING NAP TIME to face impending death during what was guaranteed to be an eternal trip.

5 Things that Help Survive the Doctors Office with Lots of Littles:

includes helpful links as well as some affiliate links

Snack Cups and Water Bottles

Planning an appointment for nap time a terrible but sometimes inevitable move BUT making sure you have adequate snackage can help curb the sleepy-induced grouchies. The crazy cool snack cups that we've had for years are a life-saver. Holds a healthy serving size and keeps the messes to a minimum.

Thumb War Temporary Tattoos

These were a fun little thing I found on sale after Christmas. Sadly it took this packaging to give me the idea to also use temporary tattoos we already had for the same idea. Easy, apply tats, teach kids "1, 2 3, 4, I declare a thumb war" and watch their lil thumbs stay busy for quite a while.
note: temp tats on fingers wear off a lot faster and look gross quickly

Spot It!

This simple card game keeps kids busy and kinda quiet for a long time as well. You can play with tons of kids or just 2. You pass out cards, flip, and who ever IDs the most matching pics gets the cards that round. Who ever gets the most cards wins. I have played with the same cards and one child by making them look for the pictures on the card in the room, kinda like a guided "I Spy" game.

iPad Learning Apps

To be honest, I have in the past been very proud that I don't let the kids use our "game phone" {old iPhone used just for kids apps} or the iPad but I know I'm not supermom and didn't want to push it. I caved, charged and packed our school iPad in the kid-friendly, foam case, and let the kids watch something together once we'd been moved to the exam room.

"Special Treat" aka Bribery

Another thing that we don't normally do after a doctors appointment are "special treats" but we all {ah hem, Mamma} earned a bribe after not snapping during the entire ordeal. We hit up the Sonic Drive-In around the corner even though Happy Hour {half price drinks} was over. Like I said, we really earned those tiny slushes and giant Dr Pepper!