The 5 Year Checkup

Mr Aiden had his five year checkup today. The drama of it started last night when I informed him that he would be going to the doctor today. He threw his hands in the air and said, "What?? My lungs are just fine! Why on EARTH do they think I need to see a doctor?!". I had to leave the room to keep from laughing at him. He attached himself to the idea of horrible, painful shots (which I tried to talk to him about so he wasn't surprised by them, but maybe I'll just keep the info to myself next time!), so he was grumpy the entire time we were in there. He relaxed a little bit during the exam (thank goodness for a fabulous pediatrician), but was right back to his grumpy self when they said it was time for shots. Part of the problem was that the usual nurse was swamped (they were behind in general and we didn't get called back until almost 30 minutes after our appt time), so she sent someone else to do the shots and that person didn't have a great bedside manner. Basically, she totally peeved Aiden. He didn't like her. So he kept trying to pull away from her and cried a lot when she gave him the shots. But I fixed everything by taking him out for ice cream afterwards.

As far as his development goes, he's right on track. We did talk about the fact that he will be reading by the time he gets to kindergarten next year and how that might affect him. Our pediatrician pointed out that most kindergarten kids aren't reading (because they are on the younger side of 5, whereas Aiden will be almost 6 by the time he gets there - poor kid's birthday is four days after the age cutoff!), so the teacher will focus on the needs of the class as a whole, not on Aiden's personal level of reading. Which means he might feel bored sometimes and will need some extra things to do outside of school to keep his interest level up. We're already there on days where there's no school. I have to keep him busy or he will find things to do....and the things he finds to do are not always good things.

His speech level is great (none of that early intervention junk from last year). He's been stuttering a bit, but we went over it (the doctor listened to him speak for a while) and he believes it to be a general speech development thing that tends to happen to boys around this age (he described it as his brain working faster than his mouth wants to), but the majority of boys outgrow it very quickly so he isn't concerned about it.

So everything looks great and here are some stats for you to compare from last year to this year:

Four years:
-Weight: 40 lbs (80th %)
-Height: 40 1/2 inches (53rd %)

Five years:
-Weight: 43 1/2 lbs (69th %)
-Height: 43 inches (51st %)

I was going to dig up a newborn baby picture, but they happen to be in a box at the bottom of a stack in the office closet and as soon as I saw what was on top of it, I just found the oldest picture I could on my computer. He's just over a year and I think it shows pretty accurately how chubby he was as a baby. And of course, a picture of the five year old right below it. He certainly has grown up!

We love you, Aiden! And sorry the shots made you cry - I hope the ice cream helped.