Growing like weeds.

I know I promised more birthday posts. But life was pretty crazy last week. Of course we had Vance's birthday on Monday, but we also had Tj's mom fly in on Sunday to spend most of the week with us. We had doctor appointments on Tuesday. And did I mention Nama was in town?! Anyhow, that will be a post unto itself. But like I was saying we took the boys in for their annual check ups.

I was not completely prepared for their check-ups. We had some mix-ups with the previous doctors office so all their files were not available at the check-up. I thought for this reason we could avoid the dreaded "S" word. Yes, shots. No dice.

Vance went first. At three years old he is 35 3/4 inches tall and 27 pounds. As his doctor stated he is the average size of a two year old. =) Our little dynamite child. What he lacks in size he more than makes up for in intellect. lol He's in the 6th percentile for weight and the 4th percentile for height. But the doctor didn't seem worried as long as he's always been petite- which he has. Here in CA they test for TB every year. So he had to have a TB test, an iron test, and four- yes you read that right FOUR- shots. Poor kid was so sad! I felt so bad for him. If you're keeping track at home that's 2 pokes and 4 spider bites.

Joel also had his 4 year doctors appointment. At four years old he is 41 1/4 inches tall and 37 1/4 pounds. He is right smack dab in the middle of the growth chart- 51st percentile for weight and 41th percentile for height. He also got to do a vision and hearing test. He took them both VERY seriously! He would listen very intently for the beeps and then raise the corresponding hand very precisely. The nurse said it was the very best hearing test she's ever seen from a 4 year old. He is such a good boy! He perfect hearing and 20/20 vision. Hopefully he and Vance get Tj's eye-sight and not mine! Joel also had to have a TB and iron test, and four - yes again FOUR- shots! Again he was not very happy about his 2 pokes and 4 spider bites.

So as I said earlier, I didn't know if the boys would get shots or not. I figured if they needed them we could get them prepped for the shots at the doctors instead of telling them about them before we went and have them (especially Joel) freak out about going to the doctor needlessly. So when we found out that they would need shots I told them that they were going to have to get shots and they would probably hurt a bit. We talked and then I was hit with inspiration. They LOVE reading their spider-man books from Nama and Pa and in one it talks about how Peter Parker was bit by a radio-active spider. So I told them that the shot would probably feel like getting bit by a radio active spider. We also talked about how just like the spider bite gave Peter Parker special powers the shots would help them from getting sick. It was a rough day and even though they were okay with the idea before the shots came they were both pretty traumatized.

"The shots hurted me so bad. I didn't know they would give me shots. Vance was very brave but I couldn't. I didn't like the shots." Joel

"I was so brave, mom!" Vance

That about sums it up. Vance cried while they gave him the shots but was pretty much okay after wards. Joel was very upset for the rest of the day and would tear up every time he talked about it. Luckily, we won't have anymore shots for a little while- I hope! Next up we tackle the Dentist!