Yesterday was Jack's school check-up. His 5 year. No shots, yippee!! Such a marked difference from last year in terms of how much he could (notice I say could) participate, by answering questions, talking to his pediatrician, etc. It was nice to see him answer a few questions constructively (once again, notice I say a few). Jack has a rip roaring case of white coat syndrome these days. I fear that this is my "fault" for taking him to the doctor so often- with all of the different specialists and therapists, he's been around the block at this point. I told him ahead of time, but not too soon, as I didn't want him to be too anxious. He loves his Dr. Vickers almost as much as I do, but he is not down with some of the "stuff" she "insists" on doing.
By the time we got to her office Jack was going frog wild, running every which way, just basically freaking out. Trying to run behind the front desk, trying to run down the hall, shouting....fun stuff. So the tech takes us back, he jumps continuously on the scale to the point where she can't get a firm number for like 5 minutes, but he was remarkably cooperative with the height. THEN she wants to do the eye test- Jack was not having it. He kept collapsing on me and closing his eyes. Finally I stepped back and told him to do it- she puts up the letter chart and my sweet cooperative child starts deliberately reading the wrong letters. He is so close to reading books at this point, and I could tell by the look on his face that he totally knew he was screwing with us. Unfortunately, the tech was not in on the secret, and was like, "let's put up the shape chart instead". Sigh.
Did he identify the correct shapes you ask? OF COURSE NOT! Until mommy turned into the wicked witch- then he started cooperating. But by then, the tech was so fed up that she marked him as having 20/20 vision after he got 2 correct. Thorough.
From that point on, the only words out of Jack's mouth for about 30 minutes were "she won't look in my ears", "she will not use the flashlight". "she's not doing anything". All of the instruments (thermometer, bp cuff, stethoscope) are "robots", just like my phone, and he really wanted the nurse to comply and make them talk to him. She wasn't quite getting it. She asked if she could do his hearing test- I asked if it was just headphones or sounds, or something else. She said the plugs go IN their ears. Dr Vickers knows about his auditory sensitivities and vetoed that idea. Love her. He fought every part of the exam, but eventually even let her look at his ears (but only the outside). We talked a bit about school and my concerns. She reminded me that he is not yet going to recognize that he is having difficulty socially, that it will be more painful for me than it will be for him. I know this, but my pain is for him. I am just hoping that this aspect goes better than I am thinking it will...
On that note, this evening I took him to a kindergarten "meet-up". One of the kindergarten mom's has graciously scheduled several of these throughout the summer so the parents and kids can get to know each other before the school year. It's a bit of a reunion for us, several families from Jack's former preschool will be going to the same elementary school, as will the daughter of a nurse I used to work with- small world. Jack did "pretty well" for about the first hour. He participated in the group activity....sat in the circle the whole time, played the parachute game. My only wish is that he would pay attention to the children HIS AGE! He is obsessed with babies (except of course his own brother) and constantly seeks them out, wants to stroke their hands, talk to them, and follow their mothers everywhere. Tonight he picked out a little baby named Trevor to chase. His mom is a teacher and she was great with Jack, but if I'm being honest, it drives me CRAZY. Some parents are very laid back about who touches their baby (mainly parents with several kids), but others really aren't. And you can tell who's ok with it right away, well I can. Jack has NO CLUE. To all of my friends with babies, I am not trying to keep him away from your little one for any other reason than the fact that he doesn't understand the difference between the baby of a friend and the baby of a stranger. He treats them no differently- so until I can help him to distinguish, the limits have to be universal. So Jack was chasing Trevor and his mom everywhere, even out into the lobby, so I pulled him aside and told him either you go play with the kids your age and let Trevor's mom feed (breastfeed- I mean really Jack???) him in peace or we will go home. Stubborn boy looks at me and chooses to go home. So that is what we did.
Here are some pictures from the cooperative moments:
He is in the blue shirt. You will likely not be able to see him well in the one picture because he is SITTING. Whoohoo!!!
By the time we got to her office Jack was going frog wild, running every which way, just basically freaking out. Trying to run behind the front desk, trying to run down the hall, shouting....fun stuff. So the tech takes us back, he jumps continuously on the scale to the point where she can't get a firm number for like 5 minutes, but he was remarkably cooperative with the height. THEN she wants to do the eye test- Jack was not having it. He kept collapsing on me and closing his eyes. Finally I stepped back and told him to do it- she puts up the letter chart and my sweet cooperative child starts deliberately reading the wrong letters. He is so close to reading books at this point, and I could tell by the look on his face that he totally knew he was screwing with us. Unfortunately, the tech was not in on the secret, and was like, "let's put up the shape chart instead". Sigh.
Did he identify the correct shapes you ask? OF COURSE NOT! Until mommy turned into the wicked witch- then he started cooperating. But by then, the tech was so fed up that she marked him as having 20/20 vision after he got 2 correct. Thorough.
From that point on, the only words out of Jack's mouth for about 30 minutes were "she won't look in my ears", "she will not use the flashlight". "she's not doing anything". All of the instruments (thermometer, bp cuff, stethoscope) are "robots", just like my phone, and he really wanted the nurse to comply and make them talk to him. She wasn't quite getting it. She asked if she could do his hearing test- I asked if it was just headphones or sounds, or something else. She said the plugs go IN their ears. Dr Vickers knows about his auditory sensitivities and vetoed that idea. Love her. He fought every part of the exam, but eventually even let her look at his ears (but only the outside). We talked a bit about school and my concerns. She reminded me that he is not yet going to recognize that he is having difficulty socially, that it will be more painful for me than it will be for him. I know this, but my pain is for him. I am just hoping that this aspect goes better than I am thinking it will...
On that note, this evening I took him to a kindergarten "meet-up". One of the kindergarten mom's has graciously scheduled several of these throughout the summer so the parents and kids can get to know each other before the school year. It's a bit of a reunion for us, several families from Jack's former preschool will be going to the same elementary school, as will the daughter of a nurse I used to work with- small world. Jack did "pretty well" for about the first hour. He participated in the group activity....sat in the circle the whole time, played the parachute game. My only wish is that he would pay attention to the children HIS AGE! He is obsessed with babies (except of course his own brother) and constantly seeks them out, wants to stroke their hands, talk to them, and follow their mothers everywhere. Tonight he picked out a little baby named Trevor to chase. His mom is a teacher and she was great with Jack, but if I'm being honest, it drives me CRAZY. Some parents are very laid back about who touches their baby (mainly parents with several kids), but others really aren't. And you can tell who's ok with it right away, well I can. Jack has NO CLUE. To all of my friends with babies, I am not trying to keep him away from your little one for any other reason than the fact that he doesn't understand the difference between the baby of a friend and the baby of a stranger. He treats them no differently- so until I can help him to distinguish, the limits have to be universal. So Jack was chasing Trevor and his mom everywhere, even out into the lobby, so I pulled him aside and told him either you go play with the kids your age and let Trevor's mom feed (breastfeed- I mean really Jack???) him in peace or we will go home. Stubborn boy looks at me and chooses to go home. So that is what we did.
Here are some pictures from the cooperative moments:
He is in the blue shirt. You will likely not be able to see him well in the one picture because he is SITTING. Whoohoo!!!
Here is the real reason why he wanted to come home early.....
No pressure daddy!!!!
By the way- the indistinguishable language we are laughing at- a quote from a German You Tube video about the BF-109 Messerschmidt, which is what John is trying to assemble....
By the way- the indistinguishable language we are laughing at- a quote from a German You Tube video about the BF-109 Messerschmidt, which is what John is trying to assemble....
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