Doctor Mitchell

After we got home from the Blessing of the Animals service at the local Episcopal church (where Tabasco was blessed by the priest), Dennis went through his dress-up repertoire for me. He put on his police jacket and donned a number of disguises on top of it. He told me he was a master of disguise, that he was a police spy.

He soon appeared in full doctor gear. He marched in and told me he was Nurse Dennis and he gave me a flu shot with his plastic syringe. Soon he was back with a real thermometer and a Coke Zero. He told me he had to test my blood and returned with the syringe. He told me to take a drink and then he took my temperature and listened to my heart with his toy stethoscope. He shook his head sadly and said "well, you have a bad blood problem: it's called Thy-mol-nermius. It's like a bad case of throwing up and your blood is going crazy!". He held up a plastic medicine dosing syringe and said "see--crazy!" while solemnly shaking his head. He went off to get me special medicine. He returned with the dropper full of water and dosed me. He checked me again a few minutes later and said it was getting worse. Soon he was tucking me in and running off to his lab to make me a "stronger medicine". He warned me "now this might be very, very, VERY loud--I've got to set my gun to 'drugs'." When he reappeared, he was wearing his toy gas mask and saying "this medicine turned out very stinky!". He ordered me to hold my nose while I drank the "medicine" from the empty plastic Toy Story cup he offered. I complied. But sadly for him, I apparently continued to worsen. He went to get some construction paper to make me a "chart" so that he could consult with David when he got home. He wrote "3 shots, 3 doses of Dennis's (his spelling) special medicine, and then he drew a line and wrote my name on the chart. He affixed it to my bedroom door with stickers and then met his Daddy at the door to tell him they had a patient to work on. I can't remember when I've delighted in his imagination more. I had the best time being his patient! He decided I was cured before he went to bed. I sang him the hymns of his choice (every verse at his insistence) and he fell asleep after playing with his action figures in bed. We could hear them "talking" to each other from our room. The best thing we heard? "Johnny, I TOLD you not to use my password on eBay anymore!! We didn't need that new control tower. 'But it wasn't me! I didn't order it. Control's brother ordered it.' 'Okay. Control's brother is going to be in big trouble!'." it was all David and I could do to not laugh hysterically at his play scenario. Love that kid!