James went in for his 4-year wellness exam this afternoon. The checkup was similar to previous exams (weight = 39.6 lbs fully clothed, height = 42.5" with shoes on, blood pressure = 121/63, temperature = no fever!, urinalysis = clear, eye exam = normal), but added in a vision test and spine check. For the vision test, James had to name drawings (rather than letters or numbers, though I suspect letters would have been easier since he had no idea what two of the pictures were suppose to represent) on a laminated paper held a few feet in front of him. There were 7 or 8 lines, and James did great until the last one. Then he simply leaned forward so he could see. I totally cracked up when he did that and the nurse smiled and told me it was ok, he passed. For the spine test he had no idea what Doctor Smith was trying to get him to do (bend forward at the waist, no, don't turn around to look at me, look at the door, now bend forward, NO! Don't turn to look at me!), so I intervened and told him to do downward-facing dog. The doc got a kick out of that. And his spine is straight. I had prepped James that the doctor would likely have some questions for him, but when the time came, he told her "I want to be shy" and was blushing and turning his head and whispering. So Cora answered his questions for him. Then he got annoyed that Cora was taking his moment of glory, so he started to speak up. I was kinda surprised that she asked again whether he speaks in sentences (it's been years now that he's done so) and whether he was potty trained (she was impressed that he's been dry overnight consistently for over a year now and that he hasn't had a daytime accident in even longer). I had also talked to him ahead of time to warn him about his booster shots (we called them superhero shots, on the advice of Sophie - I even brought his cape along for the appointment, but he didn't want to wear it). He was fine with them up until the point that it was time to get them. I'd advised him that they would feel like a pinch (like when Cora pinches him!), but that the hurt would go away super quick. Once he saw the needles though, he kinda freaked out and tried to escape... Luckily by that point Cora was sitting up on the exam table with him enjoying a lollipop (yeah, she got a sucker AND stickers, and didn't have to get any shots...), so she patted his leg and said "It's ok James, it's OK. I'm here with you." while I pinned him down and the nurse quickly administered the shots. Once it was over he was just fine, of course. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the blood test, so I hadn't prepared him for the finger stick. As we walked to the lab I was pretty nervous, but he ended up handling the finger stick MUCH better than the shots. He didn't fuss or fidget a bit. In fact, he was quite fascinated that the lady was squeezing drops of blood from his finger tip (and Cora's face was pure shock when she finally wandered in from playing down the hall and saw what the tech was doing to her brother!), and it led to lots of questions about what the doctor was going to look for in his blood (and then his pee-pee, and why did she want to look at his back, etc.). So, the verdict is we have a healthy 4-year-old (and yes, we are very grateful for that news) who is in the upper percentiles for height (90th) and weight (75th) - once again, not too big and not too small. We'll just go ahead and call him perfect :-)
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