In Other News...

Isaac had his 2 year well child check-up this morning. He did great! The doctor was pleased with his vocabulary and overall development. He weighed 25 pounds and finally moved up from the 2nd - 5th percentile to the 24th percentile! Woo Hoo! He was 34" tall (or 34 inches short, as we like to say around here). Here's how all 3 kids compare to each other, when they were all 2 years old.

Samuel: 27 lbs., 37"
Avery: 28 lbs., 36 1/2"
Isaac: 25 lbs., 34"

I think it's official... Isaac got the recessive "short" gene! He got 2 shots today, as well as a flu shot. He didn't cry at all! Unbelievable! He also had an allergy test done which meant he had blood taken (I'll talk about this more a little later), but still no tears were shed by Isaac. The nurses were amazed. I think orange lollipops are the way to go from now on with Isaac. He just sat there the entire time, sucking away on that lollipop, acting like those nurses weren't sticking him with needles. He got down from the examining table and started dancing and singing "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog." It's from The Mickey Mouse Club House, by the way... Crazy kid!

Samuel and Avery on the other hand, from the minute I told them that they were getting flu shots, both started crying. There's my 2 year old, after getting 3 shots and blood drawn, dancing and singing and not crying at all. But my 7 and 5 year olds were sobbing like babies at the mere mention of getting 1 shot! :-) I wasn't planning on getting flu shots for them this year. It just so happened that they had the day off from school for MLK day, so they came along for Isaac's appointment. Since Isaac was getting a flu shot, the doctor suggested Samuel and Avery get one too. And I decided to go for it, since it wasn't going to cost me anything extra. :-) Samuel got his shot first. Remember, he was already sobbing before he even had to climb up on the examining table. When the nurse went to give him the shot, Samuel flinched, and she pulled the needle back. She hadn't even put the needle in his arm, but he began screaming at her. I was so embarrassed. She called in another nurse to hold his arms down, which made things a whole lot worse in Avery's mind. Avery started screaming, so I started yelling at her "You're not even the one getting the shot! Calm down!" The nurse gave Samuel the shot and he looked at her and said "You shot me in the finger. It hurts really bad." I tried very hard not to laugh, because his comment made no sense. But then I saw that the needle was stuck in Samuel's finger!!! I guess when the nurse went to set it down on the table, Samuel raised his hand up at the same time and the needle met his finger. Oh my goodness! Blood was shooting everywhere. Could it have gotten any worse? Why yes it could, and it did, because it was Avery's turn. This poor child was SCREAMING... And nothing I said would make her quiet down. She got the shot (no fingers got shot this time), and when the nurse pulled away, Avery said in a calm voice "That wasn't so bad." To which I responded "Well I'm so glad it wasn't that bad for you, because Nurse Reana and I are now deaf and everyone within a mile of us knows exactly how you feel about getting the flu shot."

Okay, so even though Samuel got shot in his finger, he still managed to play his Nintendo DS (it's like a Game Boy) on the way home in the car. And, he finally defeated Ti Lung on his Kung Fu game. He was SOOOO proud of himself. He's been trying since Christmas, which is when he got the game. He told me that he can't wait to tell his Daddy tonight when he gets home from work!

Miss Avery Grace goes on Thursday for her follow up appointment with the ENT. She seems to be doing well and feeling great since her surgery. We are hopeful that her hearing screening will come back showing a big improvement.

And as for Isaac having blood taken today, our doctor strongly feels like we should not subject Isaac to a skin-prick allergy test. And here's why... Isaac is little, and young. Even if we did get answers from the test, our doctor does not believe it is worth putting Isaac through the pain at such a young age since 1) We already seem to have a good idea of what he's allergic to, 2) He's never had an allergic reaction that warranted us doing anything more than giving him Benadryl or rubbing cortisone cream on him, and 3) Every time we have needed to give him Benadryl, the allergic reaction has always stopped. So, the doctor had blood drawn from Isaac instead of referring him to an allergist, to test for the "high offenders" again (peanuts, dairy, etc.), and he is also going to test for a latex/plastic allergy. We should have those results back within a week.