Visit with Lindsay & Lila and Doctor's Report

I sometimes find it hard to believe how life has changed so drastically in what seems to be such a short period of time. It was only a little more than 10 years ago that I got a letter from Penn State with the name "Lindsay Rippke" on it....my roommate. We talked on the phone to each other and asked the important questions- "What color is your hair? It's not green is it? How many tattoos do you have? What color is your bedspread?" And then we met and hit it off like we'd known each other all our lives. And still, Lindsay remains one of my most cherished friends, my "go to" phone call when I need some advice or an honest opinion about something, and, quite simply, one of the people I just love spending time with. I hate that our visits are so spread out, but I love them all the more because of it. And so it was a bit surreal to be sitting in our house yesterday visiting with our children. Our activities were much the same as they always have been--- chatting, catching up, laughing, watching a little TLC and a touch of Oprah, and marveling over the fact that we're both moms now with these beautiful children that we couldn't love more. Isn't Lila just precious?

Joshua was the most well behaved that I have seen him in recent history. You could tell that he loved Lindsay (got as much of a kick out of her as I always do) and proceeded to show her every toy in our house. He sang songs for her and talked up a storm. Lindsay probably thinks all of my stories about Joshua and his mischief are exaggerations....but they're not. We just lucked out with a great day with him. I was so proud of him and must have told him that a thousand times last night. Lila was as sweet as she could be. I give Lindsay BIG points for making the trip from Philadelphia (here and back in the same day) with a three month old. I would never have been brave enough to attempt it.

Skipping his nap and playing hard yesterday afternoon had him fast asleep at 8:00. I got a little overconfident thinking he'd surely sleep through the night after missing his nap, so I didn't go to sleep right away and went down to catch a little TV time with Jason (a rarity these days). Josh woke up around 10 from a bad dream and screamed for a half hour until I had told him enough good stories to get past whatever happened in his little head. Poor thing. Then he was up at 5 raring to go for the day.....not quite what I had in mind. But we managed with Daddy's help.

We were out the door at 8 for his 2 year checkup at the pediatrician's. Now, I try not to complain, but I have to wonder how it could take us from 8 until 10 to get this child in and out of the doctor's office for a CHECKUP. When we got there, the office was vacant...not a soul around. Yet we waited for over 20 minutes to go into the exam room. Then we waited for the doctor. Then we waited for the nurse to come in with the flu shot. It was really getting a bit ridiculous. I try to be reasonable in my expectations about things, but it seems odd that you have to take a whole half day out of the office to go to an 8:15 doctor's appointment.

I won't withhold the stats from you any longer. For those of you keeping score, Joshua was 36 1/4 inches tall (90th percentile). His head size is right where it should be, 49.2 cm (52nd percentile). And here's the biggie------ he weighed 27 pounds. That's almost a 3 pound gain since his 18 month checkup. He's jumped to the 30th percentile for weight and the doctor felt more comfortable with how he caught up since our last visit. He did end up getting his flu shot, which he was none too thrilled about. I felt awful because I knew all of his baby shots were done, but I had forgotten about the flu shot. He screamed the entire way through the appointment.....honestly, the WHOLE way through. And then it escalated when he saw the nurse appear with the shot. When he finally settled down and we said goodbye to the nurses and headed to the car, he looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, "Mommy, you said no shot." It just broke my heart that I had lied to him. I hope he'll forgive me. If we hadn't waited 2 hours, I was seriously considering bringing him back another time for the flu shot, but after the long wait, I thought I'd take my chances that he'd get over the disappointment from my fib.

I still can't believe he's 2.....