A Titanic Appointment

Cole had his annual well-child check-up today. He was really nervous about it because he knew he was going to get vaccinations for chicken pox and measles. Well, all he knew was that he was going to get some shots and he was not looking forward to it. So I tried to take his mind off that part of the day by making the rest of the day fun. I picked him up from preschool and we went to the park for a picnic. Then he and Heather played on the playground for about an hour before his doctor visit.

We went to his appointment and he showed the receptionist his Titanic that he had insisted on bringing. I didn't mind him bringing it. I figured anything that makes him feel better and gets his mind off the shots. He and the receptionist had a nice little conversation about the Titanic and ships in general. She said she'd like to take a cruise across the ocean. As we were turning away from her to go sit in the waiting area he told her, "Well Juwie wivs way, way acwoss the ocean where the Titanic sunk."

He showed the nurses the Titanic while they weighed and measured him. He's tall for his age (90th percentile) and thin (10th percentile). They checked him all out. Good eyes, good ears, good blood, good heart. Everything looked great. He's very healthy.

When the doctor came in she sat him up on the exam table. While she listened to his heart and poked him with her little flashlight, she asked him all kind of questions about what he likes to eat, does he like to ride a bike, does he wear a helmet, does he brush his teeth, does he go to preschool? Then she asked him if he had any ideas about what he wanted to be when he grew up.

He said, "I want to be a singer."

She walked right into his net by blindly asking, "Oh. You like to sing? Can you sing me a song?"

I could see that he was immensely pleased, but he tried to hide his smile. He sighed, acting nonchalant, "Well...I'll need my Titanic." He held his hand out to me where I was turning red on the bench. I dutifully handed over the little ship (see photo previous post) so he could charm her with his sweet little voice softly lilting out the haunting melody of "My Heart Will Go On." Luckily he sang an abridged version and stopped before it collided with the ice berg. Maybe he didn't think she could handle the sadness. When he stopped he asked "Is that enough?" She said he did a wonderful job and thought that she had never had a little boy sing a song to her during an appointment before.

After she was done examining him, she brought him into the office to pick out a book to have. I stayed in the exam room with Heather. When she and Cole came back, she said, chuckling, "He asked if we had any books about the Titanic, but we don't so he had to take his second best choice." It was a book about a cow who eats too many pears.

When I went out to check-out with the receptionist, all the office lady workers crowded around the receptionist's window and wanted to know how long he had been interested in the Titanic, and thought it was so cute and unusual that he had asked for a Titanic book. One of them said she thinks she has some National Geographics with Titanic stuff in it and she's going to bring it in for him next time.

And yes, in the middle of all this, he did get two shots. He did cry dramatically. He got over it quickly. Here he is at home after a chocolate ice cream cone which helped cheer him up.