February 21, 2007
Okay, I'm going to do this entry and then get off the Internet for the next several hours while I buckle down and work on the monster project that I am supposed to be completing for my job. You know, the one that pays me money.
Anyway, things here have been hectic, as per usual. We just got back from yet another whirlwind trip to Seattle. I'll admit I was not thrilled about the concept of wedging myself into an airplane for 6+ hours each way while 5.5 months pregnant, but it turned out all right. Zeke and Stazi entertained themselves reasonably well. We didn't even have to break out the secret weapon, a.k.a. our hidden stash of DVDs and my laptop. The kids don't actually know that the laptop can play movies, and I would sort of like to keep it that way. But we brought some along on the airplane in case of emergency; they turned out not to be needed. Stazi played with her magnetic paper dolls and Zeke was mostly entertained by listening to the "Kids' Music" channel on the airplane headphones.
While in Seattle, we visited the Pacific Science Center (twice!), the Children's Museum, and the Space Needle observation deck, all of which are places that I feel I should point out I never visited when I actually lived in Seattle. This is always the way. I only visited the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and the Field Museum after I'd moved away and come back for a visit, which is a crying shame, because they're both great, but when you live in a place, you always think you'll have time to get around to going and doing the tourist-type stuff. And then your husband gets laid off and you wind up moving 2000 miles across the country unexpectedly. (That last bit might not be quite as universally true as the rest.)
One of the mornings we were there, I took Zeke on the bus to Archie McPhee's, "the funnest place in the world," and let him pick out some presents for Stazi and his daddy. He picked out a snowglobe for each of them, some wind-up tin ladybugs for Stazi, and a pig nose for himself. Then in the bus on the way home, he announced that he had decided to keep the snowglobes for himself, and I had to explain that once you buy something as a gift, you are morally obligated to give it as a gift, because otherwise it's just buying something for yourself and that's not really a gift, no matter how much the Christmas commercials might try to make you think so. I think I didn't actually say that last part.
Incidentally, earlier this afternoon Zeke took the Floam he got for Christmas and built a scale model of the Space Needle. It was pretty good, although the restaurant at the top did not actually rotate, of course.
Zeke had his 5-year checkup at the pediatrician's office today. His doctor was very impressed at his number recognition skills (she wrote 2, 8, 10, 30, 40, 58, 83, and 100 on the exam table paper and he knew them all and did a little cheer for himself at the end when he got to 100) and reported that, unsurprisingly, he is still really tall. Although he's slacking off a little in that department, as he is now only 90th percentile in height instead of his previous 95th-99th percentile. We are all okay with this.
He also got his ears examined with some weird little ear probe thing that apparently works without the child actually having to give feedback of any sort, and a vision check. The ear exam went fine; the vision exam, not so much. They had him stand across the room from an eye chart with different shapes on it (triangle, circle, square, house) and asked him to identify the shapes, first with both eyes open, and then while covering one eye at a time. He did marginally okay with both eyes, but had a lot of trouble just using one eye. He kept fighting to uncover the covered-up eye, and by the time he was halfway down the chart he said that everything looked like a triangle, and then refused to answer any more at all because it was "too hard."
So the pediatrician's office said that at this age it can be difficult for them to tell what is an actual vision problem and what is just a child not wanting to cooperate with the exam, but they estimate his vision at 20/50 in both eyes and we should get him checked out by an ophthalmologist. I'll admit I was kind of hoping the kids would get Keith's (pre-cancer) eyes instead of mine, but you know, there are benefits to having glasses. It's nice when there's blowing freezing rain in the air, for example. So there's always a silver lining. And besides, we don't even know if he actually needs vision correction or if he's just anti-authority about refusing to take the eye exam.
The last part of the appointment was, of course, the round of pre-K shots. I don't remember getting three shots at a time when I was 5 years old, but maybe I've just blocked it from my memory. Today was DTP, polio, and a chicken pox booster. The doctor said they could do Hepatitis A too, but I said thanks, three shots is plenty. Zeke really hated it and needed a lot of hugs and kisses afterward, and you know, that moment of consoling your sobbing child who you have just consented to have stuck with needles THREE FREAKING TIMES is what I think makes a lot of people really buy into the anti-vaccination conspiracy theories. Seriously. There's just something that feels really emotionally wrong about letting nurses jab your totally healthy child with sharp needles. But I decided a long time ago that there's no way I'm going to find myself in the position of holding vigil next to my child's hospital bed (again) because of a disease that could have easily been prevented with a vaccination. I could go on at further length on this issue, but that's my basic position right there.
Zeke does report that one of his shots is now all better and the other two are "kind of better but not all better yet" so hopefully the trauma fades soon. And like I told him today, that's the last time he has to get shots for a long, long time.
And now it is time for me to get off the damn Internet and get to work.
Posted at February 21, 2007 2:03 PM