Check Up

Allie had her five year old check up today. I've been saying for months that I was going to change pediatricians. After months of sitting in our current office feeling like I was in a clinic or better yet, a MASH unit, I bit the bullet. The office where I decided to move to is actually one that Hannah went to as an infant. They have now moved to a super fancy office and I suppose I will be helping them pay for that building. It is a worthy investment, however. When I walked in, there was a spacious waiting room and the concept of well child room was actually in place. At my old pediatrician, the well child room is the room all the sick people sit in when the sick people room fills up. I literally cringed going in there, dared my children to touch anything and bathed when we got home. My new pediatrician had me arrive 30 minutes early to complete paperwork. You must be thinking that people write really slow around here. Quite the contrary, the amount of paperwork is ungodly, completely insane. I brought the other 3 kids' paperwork home so I could do in peace and quiet front of TV. Enough rambling.

Allie was in true form and talked openly and candidly to the doctor, with complete animation. She told about her brother and his shenanigans, about our trampoline (I was hoping she'd leave that one off as doctors frown on these things), and a number of other ramblings (don't know where she got that from). She even informed the doctor that she could lick her armpit and proceeded to try a demonstration. I would say I was mortally embarrassed, but I was laughing too hard. She did great on her vision screening. When she couldn't see the bottom line, she leaned over, cupped her hand and whispered, "What is dat??" We hit somewhat of a snag,too, with the whole finger prick thing, which caused a total freak out. SO glad that nurse could snip it in a hurry. She was all of 41 inches tall and 34.6 pounds. That is the 25th and 10th percentile, respectively, which I think is nuts. I would be afraid of that going to kindergarten but she's had 5 years of training by her older brother and can hold her own pretty well. She talks a good game, too, and I think I'd be scared of her if I was in kindergarten. I guess she will follow suit as one of the shortest in the class, a trait my older two hate.

So to recap...Allie had a good visit, is small, and I like my new pediatrician. Yeah, I coulda said that to start with and saved you the trouble.