MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

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I took my twins for their 7th grade checkup this morning. They will be
12 this Sunday! It ended up being one of those Moments, those events
that pile on other events that you've gone through several times
before. All those baby check ups, the toddler check ups, the young kid
check ups. The shots, the baby cries, the squirming youngsters, trying
to keep three kids entertained in a small white room while we waited
for the doctor. Nurses asking questions, doctors asking questions, me
asking questions. Let the kids pick stickers from a jar for being
good. Don't forget to validate your parking ticket!

Now at almost-12, the check ups went so smoothly. While youngest son
occupied himself quietly with drawing and reading in the waiting room
(which is no mean feat for a very active 8 yr old), I took in older
son and daughter. They joked with the doctor, asking if the needles
were a half inch long or five feet. After the initial questions, they
each got their separate exam room to change into their cloth gowns
(highly appreciated by both of them, remembering those embarrassing
paper gowns). DS got his exam first, answering a lot of the questions
for himself about diet and exercise and schoolwork. When it came time
for his privates to be examined, I pointedly looked away (I'd told him
about this before, that I would stay in the room but not look). Oh,
the little boy I used to bathe, who used to run around the front yard
naked! Puberty and adolescence are among us.

DD's appointment was much the same, except she isn't so private with
me yet, and the doctor talked about periods and breast development.
Then came the tetanus shot, which they both had been fretting about
for weeks. DS especially had the look of walking the gangplank about
him, but he went first. He wouldn't admit in front of his sister that
it wasn't so bad. When she had hers, she said with surprise that it
hardly hurt at all. A good lesson in the worrying being worse than the
outcome.

It still took 2 hours to do the physicals (the joy of twins!), and
younger DS behaved so wonderfully in the waiting room that we praised
him much. Then it was the promised trip to the DQ for good behavior.
All in all, not as tiring as those baby or toddler check ups. But now
my babies are 5 feet tall!