On Monday, Maximus’ birthday, he had his 3-year check. I was pretty confident that shots weren’t required so I didn’t feel too bad about the appointment. He, on the other hand, didn’t want to go to the doctor. As we were walking in he said, “Quinten is going to see Doctor Jim?” Um, nope. You are. The nurse was pretty cool and had him hold the stethoscope while she listened to his heart. Then she told him he could put on a cool dinosaur gown or just lift up his shirt. He wanted no part in taking off his clothes so he opted to lift up his shirt. (I’m surprised at how early children learn modesty.) She even found him a Happy Birthday sticker since he did such a good job with the blood pressure cuff. He was ready to go after she left and said he didn’t want to see Doctor Jim. Being the polite little boy that he is, he still said hello to Doctor Jim when he walked in. He was a little quiet and whiny, but he still said it. 🙂 I love that he’s still so impressionable, even if he doesn’t want to do something.
He was a little leery about getting on the table but realized that Doctor Jim wasn’t going to hurt him. He did a great job of listening and following directions. He didn’t like the anatomy check and gave Doctor Jim quite the side-eye and started to wiggle around a lot. (That modesty thing again. Regardless of how many times a day I say, “please stop touching your …”)
Doctor Jim told him to stand and mimic him and touch his toes. It was the first time I saw him follow directions like that. He looked like such a big kid! That was one of those sad mommy moments when you realize your kid really is three.
We love going to Doctor Jim because he offers the nerdy details that Bryan yearns for and also gets a kick out of talking to Maximus. They chatted about Maximus’ birthday party and his white cake. And when we finally told Maximus he could leave, he headed out the door almost before I could tell him to say good-bye. He stopped, backtracked a little, threw up his hand in a wave, and said, “Bye Doctor Jim!” And then we took him downstairs to have his blood drawn…
Yes, we did. We opted to just get it over with even if it was his birthday. Luckily, he didn’t remember the place. I guess that means his two-year draw wasn’t traumatic. I took him back and he talked to the ladies about the cartoons on the wall and the color of their shirts. One lady explained what she was going to do and that it was going to pinch but not hurt like a shot because there was no medicine. Meanwhile I was wondering why the heck she was explaining any of this to him! I’m not sure that he knows what a shot is. I’m sure he knows to get nervous when he sees a needle, but I don’t know that he knows the name of it. Maybe he seemed older than three or maybe they’ve found it’s helpful to explain what is about to happen. Either way, he watched her the whole time! I couldn’t even watch, but I couldn’t get him to look up at me either. His lips started to quiver and his face got red. I thought tears were going to spill out, but then it was over. As soon as he sat up he said, “mommy, why that girl put a hole in my arm?” Then, obviously, he spent the next 45 minutes walking around like his arm was broke and he couldn’t move it. 🙂
Three seems to be a pretty cool age. It’s still full of raw emotion, but it’s also full of so much learn. He asks why at least 5,329 times a day. So much that my eyes go cross-eyed and I don’t think I can possibly come up with one more reason why. Yet, I do. I try to turn it into a teaching experience, but I almost always fail at that. “Maximus, why do you think I’m putting away the groceries?” “Why mommy?” ::palm to face::
Three year stats:
- Height: 3′ 3/4″ (25.98%)
- Weight: 29 lbs 9.6 oz (27.58%)
- BMI: 15.41 kg (29.19%)
