Weights & Measures

One week after we celebrated Xandra's fourth birthday we made a trip to the doctor in which all three girls had a well visit:   Xandra's 4 year check up; Theia's 2 1/2 year check up; and Aliyah's 18 month check up.

The nurse put out these gowns for the older girls to wear.  Why don't they decorate adult gowns in such a fun manner?  They wore the gowns for about 5 minutes and then stripped them off in favor of being naked jaybirds in their underwear.  Maybe we can work on modesty for next year's doctor visit.

Everything was done in threes. 

First Xandra climbed up on the big, adult scale to be weighed.  After watching Xandra, Theia happily took her place on the scale.  Not to be left out, Aliyah promptly climbed up on the scale to get her weight, too. 

Next we ventured into the hallway for height measurements.   Xandra stood tall and still with her heels against the wall.  Theia stood tall and kind of still and needed help getting her feet against the wall.  Liyah stood and the nurse got a close approximation of her height.

The older girls fall in the 90-95th percentiles for height and weight.  Aliyah seems have received the short genes and measured in the 60th percentile for weight and 30th percentile for height. 

Aliyah's main concern throughout the appointment was putting on Theia's shoes.  This seems to be her main concern in life right now.  She really likes carting shoes around the house, asking someone else repeatedly to put them on and then proudly walking around in them saying, "Bye bye," once she has gotten her way.

All girls were healthy and very well behaved.  The worst part of the visit were the shots, and not for Aliyah, who had one and didn't cry at all, but for Xandra who had four shots and spent all the time prior to the shots hiding under the exam table.  While the shot was administered she screamed, bellowed, hollered, cried and attempted to flail about.  I held her down while the nurse braced her arm and she quickly got two shots in each arm.  It took a good 15 minutes to calm her after the shot episode and there was lots of accompanying bellyaching about her shots the rest of the day.  She also had a reaction to the DTap in which her arm swelled and she had a red circle with a 2.5" diameter on her arm for a few days.  We've been assured this is within the normal reactions and thankfully her arm slowly returned to it's previous state.

After two hours at the doctor's office and having Xandra pee on my hand while I attempted to catch her urine in a small cup for a urine sample (the things we do as moms), I don't know who was more ready for us to leave:  the doctors, nurses, or my kids.  I suspect the answer is ME!