Healthy Five-Year Olds

Yesterday was the boys' 5-year well child checkup. We love our pediatrician, who has a great touch with kids. Here are the highlights, in no particular order.

• Charlie was 43 1/2 inches tall and Joseph was 43 inches tall. This confirms that we made the right decision in adding a folded up pair of socks to Charlie's shoes to reach the 44-inch requirement to ride Space Mountain at Disneyworld.


• Charlie's blood pressure was 98/63 and Joseph's blood pressure was 100/61. I have no idea if this is within the normal range, but Joseph seemed satisfied that beating Charlie by 2 points on his systolic blood pressure made up for the 1/2 inch that Charlie beat Joseph in height.


• As proof that he is getting bigger, Charlie demonstrated his whistling skills to the doctor.


• Both boys wowed the doctor with their math skills. The doctor came in and, noting that they were both there for a 5-year appointment, asked if he could just do one 10-year appointment (a joke both boys totally got). Then he teasingly asked whether they needed shots and -- their steel-trap minds remembering that he told them, long ago, that there would be no more vaccinations until age 11 -- they pointed out to him that it would be 6 more years before they needed shots. That's when the doctor commented that they were very good at math, and I said that they love math. So Charlie volunteered that he knew what 5 times 5 is, but got it wrong (he said 20), and Joseph corrected him with 25. So the doctor asked what 7 times 7 was and they got really quiet. It looked like they were shy because they didn't know. So he started asking them further questions about football, soccer, etc.--topics he knows they love. They ignored him, refusing to answer. But I knew what they were doing. A few seconds later, having figured it out in their head, first Charlie then Joseph shouted, "49!"


• Both boys passed their hearing and vision tests. And they got to use the "big" eye chart with letters rather than the one for little kids with just pictures. I knew they would like the letters better. The nurse seemed surprised that they knew their letters, but surely most 5-year-olds do?

• The vision test was in Room L, which is the same room that Joseph got his infected head wound drained, without painkillers, during Will and Helen's 1-week baby appointment. He has been terrified of that room for the past 2 years, but yesterday, once I calmly explained that we would be in Room L but what we were doing wouldn't hurt at all, he not only went right in, but he went first!


• Both boys were in the 50th percentile for height (finally getting up to average!) and the 25th percentile for weight. Oh, how skinniness is wasted on the young.


• Keeping up the mean mommy persona, I refused to let them have lollipops after the appointment. I have reserved lollipops as a panacea for the bad things that happen at the doctor's office, like shots. Daddy would totally have let them have one.