Needless to say, it was not the most fun he's had on a random Thursday.
Biscuit finally had his 4-year-old checkup today. It was originally scheduled for the week after his birthday, but I changed it because I was helping to run training classes for our big computer upgrade at work and couldn't take time away.
The earliest they could reschedule was Nov. 30. But that morning, as we were getting ready to go, the doctor's office called to say that the doctor had called in sick. In all of my 44 years, I don't think I ever remember having to reschedule an appointment because the doctor called in sick.
So we finally got it set up for this afternoon at 3:40. The appointment time was terrible because it hit during the busiest time of my day. But we needed to get it done.
The appointment was over at 4:45, so Jeff and I had some finagling to do. The doctor's office is right between work and day care, so we figured the easiest thing would be to take Biscuit to work with us.
Biscuit said his hellos to everybody and got his usual snack from one of the ladies I work with. Then I set him up at a computer to watch cartoons on the PBS website. One of the photographers came over and snapped a picture of him.
I forgot to turn off the screen saver, so after a few minutes of watching his video, the screen went black.
"Mom," Biscuit said in a normal tone of voice. "MOMMY!" Biscuit yelled across the newsroom.
I sprinted from my desk, which was about three desks away, shushing Biscuit the entire way.
"SHHHHHHHHHH!" I said. Have you ever heard anybody yell and whisper at the same time? "You're too loud!" I said. "Shhhhh."
"But it turned off," Biscuit said. So I fixed the screen saver and Biscuit picked up right where he left off.
Apparently, I was the only one bothered by him yelling my name. Everybody else either thought it was funny or never even heard him.
Jeff took Biscuit to get some dinner about 6:30, then they came back to get me a couple of hours later. I tried to make a fuss about how well Biscuit did at his appointment. He got really upset when he got the shots. And who can blame him?
After the nurse was done with the needles, Biscuit shot her a mean look. Then he looked at me and cried, "She hurt me!"
"I know, baby," I said, trying to console him, "but she didn't mean to. I know those shots hurt, but they will help you from getting sick. That nurse didn't like having to hurt you. She just wants to help you stay healthy."
I had a job as a phlebotomist to help pay for college, and I used to hate, hate, hate when moms would say things like, "That mean old lady stuck that needle in your arm," or "I'll get her for hurting my baby."
I vowed then that if I ever did have a child, I would not say stuff like that. Saying those things simply made the kids even more afraid of nurses and phlebotomists.
I guess Biscuit accepted what I told him because as we left, he said goodbye to the nurse and waved at her.
Biscuit is 39 inches tall and weighs 32 pounds. He is now in the 15th percentile for his age. That means that 85% of kids his age are taller and heavier than him. But Biscuit is just fine where he is. The doctor laughed when he saw the graph of Biscuit's growth.
"Slow and steady," the doctor said. "Slow and steady."
The doctor asked Biscuit all kinds of questions, like "If I'm not going OVER the fence, I'm going to go ... " And Biscuit answered with "under." If I'm not going UPSTAIRS, I'm going ... " And Biscuit answered "downstairs."
The doctor drew shapes on a notebook and asked Biscuit to identify them. Then he had Biscuit draw a circle. He said we need to work on how Biscuit holds his pencil. So we told him that Biscuit had just recently decided that his right hand was the one he wanted to write with.
The doctor got out a tennis ball and played catch with Biscuit. Biscuit is a good thrower with both hands, but his catching needs some work.Then the doctor rolled the ball on the floor and asked Biscuit to kick it. Biscuit automatically kicked it with his right foot. Most likely his dominant foot. And from that, we noticed that his right side seems to be a bit stronger than his left. That makes me happy and sad at the same time. I'm a lefty, and I like being a lefty. But it is definitely harder for lefties. Everything is geared toward right-handed people. And for that reason, I'll be happy if Biscuit is right-handed.
The doctor asked about Biscuit stutter which has gotten so much better over the past few months. Most of the time when he gets stuck, he just uses "um" or "uh" as a filler. I haven't heard him get stuck on the first letter of a word in a while. We told the doctor that we had talked to a speech teacher about it, and he seemed to think that was a good thing.
The doctor said Biscuit's speech is advanced, but we sorta knew that going in.
I think that's all the basic stuff. He said Biscuit looks great and is doing great.
But hey, we don't need a professional to tell us that, do we?
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