Ruby's Brave Day

A short story about visiting the doctor and facing fears, one at a time.

This is Ruby. Today she is going to the doctor. Her mom said she is getting so big and the doctor is going to tell us HOW big! Ruby is a little afraid to go, but she knows her mom will be right there with her the whole time. 

When they get to the doctors office, they tell the woman that Ruby is there to see Doctor Cole for her check up. While she is waiting for her name to be called, Ruby gets to play. They have a lot of fun things for her to choose from. Ruby chooses to color a picture and wait to hear her name. 

Once the nurse comes out and calls for Ruby, her mom gets up and says it their turn. They follow the nurse, that's the doctor's best, most important helper, and she tells Ruby to step onto the scale. A scale is what they use to see how much Ruby weighs. When she is done, the nurse tells Ruby "good job" and they start to follow her again. 

This time, the nurse takes them into a bright room with a special table just for Ruby to sit on! Ruby looks around and sees a lot of things she has never seen before. She is very glad that she has her mommy there with her.

The nurse tells Ruby she is going to do a few things to get ready for the doctor. The first thing she does is measure how big Ruby's head is. To do this, she put a big ring around Ruby's head like a hat. She could feel it on her forehead and then it was done! Ruby thought that part was easy! After she took the ring off, she took Ruby's temperature. She did that on her forehead too; but this time, she ran something across it really fast, it made a BEEP noise and then that was done too! This was easier than Ruby thought it was going to be!

Next, the nurse tells Ruby to lay down on the table so she can measure how long she is. Ruby had to scoot way back on the table so her feet weren't hanging off. She had to lay very straight and hold super still while the nurse made a mark on the table where Ruby's feet were. Then she did the same thing at the top of Ruby's head! When she was all done marking, Ruby got up and the nurse measured how long she was by where the lines were on the table. Ruby was so long the nurse's measuring tape wasn't long enough! Next time Ruby came here she was going to be measured standing up like to really big kids were! Her mommy was right, she was getting SO big! 

The nurse was all done and now it was time to see the doctor. Before the nurse left, she gave Ruby a gown to wear, that's like a dress for people to wear when they come to the doctor's office. It was soft and had tigers on it! Ruby absolutely loved it. The nice nurse thanked Ruby and her mommy for being great helpers and left to go help the next little boy or girl. 

While they waited, Ruby and her mom looked at the pretty paintings on the walls and talked about what they were going to say to the doctor. After a few minutes, they heard a knock at the door and it was Doctor Cole! She walked in with a big smile on her face and said hello to Ruby and her mom. Ruby really liked her doctor and now she remembered why, she was always so nice. Ruby's mom said that Doctor Cole had been her doctor since she was a brand new baby! Since Ruby was so much bigger now, she got to answer the questions that Doctor Cole was asking. She asked her questions like what she likes to do for fun, what she likes to eat and drink, and lots of others! Ruby liked talking with her doctor. 

Once they were done talking, it was time for the doctor to look at Ruby. First, she used something called a stethoscope to listen to Ruby's heart and breathing. Ruby knew what that was because she had one at home that she used to give her mom and dad check ups. Doctor Cole said Ruby's heart sounded great and next she would checked her eyes. To do this, she used a bright light like a flashlight to look into Ruby's eyes. It happened so fast and Ruby didn't think that was too bad either! Next, she checked Ruby's ears. She used a smaller light for this and when she looked in her ears it tickled a little! Ruby giggled and so did Doctor Cole. 

Now it was time to lay down on the table again so Doctor Cole could feel Ruby's tummy. That tickled even more than her ears did! Then she sat Ruby up and told her it was time to check her reflexes. She had a small tool that looked a little like a hammer that she used to gently tap on Ruby's knees to make sure her legs were working, and they definitely were! They gave little kick when Doctor Cole tapped on them, that was silly! 

Doctor Cole told Ruby that she was all done for today and that she had done such a good job. Ruby was so happy that she was brave enough to go see the doctor even when she was a little scared. Now she knew she didn't have anything to be afraid of. She was a little sad when it was over tough because she could not take her amazing tiger gown home with her. She couldn't wait until next time when she could wear it again. The doctor walked them out of the room and even let Ruby pick out a sticker! She put that on her shirt right away. 

While Ruby was picking out her sticker she saw a little boy who was crying. He had just seen the doctor too, but Ruby didn't understand why he was crying. She asked her mom and she said that it was because sometimes, even though you are SO brave, you can still be very scared and even cry, and that's okay. The boy had still been brave just like Ruby. He hugged his dad and they picked out a sticker and he started to feel better. 

Ruby and her mom left the doctors office and Ruby was feeling very proud of herself, and proud of the little boy too. It felt great to be brave. 

Author's Note

I just wrote this after taking my daughter to the doctor this morning. Meant for an audience around the 2-6 year old range. Envisioned as a picture book, hence the "This is Ruby" at the beginning. I'm trying to work on writing something little like this every day to get myself in the habit of daily writing.Let me know what you think of the flow, if it's too repetitious, and if you think it would actually help a little one out that's afraid to go to the doctor. Thanks in advance for reading and for any input! It's much appreciated.