Pediatrician Update--Four Years!

I delayed the boys' 4 year well child pediatrician visits so that they could get flu shots on the same visit. Nice mama, huh, to condense all the shots into one visit?!? The boys were perfect patients, answering all the nurse's and doctor's questions and complying with all the tests and measurements with good humor. They really haven't had any medical or health issues (but for the Lyme disease and broken leg in August) so it was a pretty short visit. Theo is in the 13th percentile for height and has an above-average BMI (he must have eaten a lot at school that day) and Beckett is in about the 30th percentile for height and with a below-average BMI (I think he lost some weight, or at least slowed gaining, while he had the broken leg). Their vision is perfect and they are in all measurable ways growing just as they should be.

The boys just chatted and chatted all through the visit, asking all kinds of questions to the nurses and doctor about what was going on and what they were doing at school and various other things. It was pretty funny. Then after the doctor finished up, she reminded us that we had shots to get today for kindergarten. Three shots, not including the flu shot. The boys were again given the choice to get flu mist or flu shot, and they again chose the shots, to the nurses' amazement. When the nurse came in to give the shots, she asked me how I wanted to do it. I kind of shrugged and said she could do Theo first, then Beckett. I got up from sitting with Reed to go stand next to Theo. The boys were excitedly counting "FOUR! FOUR shots!" Theo got his first shot, and a cloud came over his face. "That didn't feel good!" Three more and he was pretty unhappy but never cried or flinched. Beckett, watching all of Theo's shots, seemed concerned but then took his shots like a champion. After the first one, he proudly announced, "That didn't hurt!" He looked like he might cry after the fourth shot, but he didn't. The nurse looked absolutely stunned and said she had never seen four year olds tolerate shots like the boys did. I realized then that when she came into the room with the needles and asked me what I wanted her to do, she meant, like whether she needed extra people to hold them down or something. I've never been bothered by shots, and I guess the kids aren't either. I was so proud of them!

I also had the chance to weigh Reed, who is now 18 and a half pounds. He has rolls upon lovely rolls. It's fantastic. People love to tell us what a chunker he is!