A Clean Bill of Health

“Yah, he eats A.LOT!” Mike says to the nurse as Lawson plays nearby, his healthy frame bouncing up and down as he examines the mechanics of the rotating chair. “Well, you’d never know it,” she says, giggling as he did a little jig in the corner then shared an “hola” with a gorgeous model on the cover of a patient room magazine. “In fact, he’s long and lean: 30th percentile for weight and 90th for height.”

And though I was thrilled for the little man…I gotta admit I got a little jealous at this point. Long and lean was never a term quite used to describe my obtuse body…even at 15 months…

His stats: 32 ½” tall, 23 lbs and 2 oz with a “good sized brain,” meaning a 193/8” measure around of the cranium. What can we say? He’s a Choate/Esslinger combo…

The whole visit was a blast, from watching him trot around, comfortable in his pale skin, using a slew of new vocabulary, skimming every surface and hugging Dr. D., who by the way described him as “unusually social.” Um, that may be a little bit my fault…

For days, we had been preparing him about how “it’s going to hurt a little bit” and initiating ice cream visits after immunizations. In fact, we were even a bit nervous as we’d read the 15-month visit was one of the toughest given the amount of immunizations and where they were stuck. And the little man’s take on it all?

He didn’t even cry.

Ok, he shot the nurse one nasty look that said “WTF are you doing to my leg?!” but that was it. There was even a moment where I wondered if ice cream was even going to be necessary. But then I remembered that I wanted it too…

This experience was remarkable, magical and uplifting, just as all have been with this amazing boy we get to call a son who has been in our life nearly 16 months. And the best part of it all was how differently it looked from nearly a year ago when we were crouched in the corners of Children’s Mercy, testing, testing, testing to find answers. And the outcome:

A perfectly delightful, amazingly remarkable, healthy little boy.

Here’s to a clean bill of health to you and yours. May all of us be this lucky in this lifetime…