They will poke me?

I told Jackson that we were going to take him to the doctor today. And his reply, "they will poke me??" This is what he remembers from his last appointment.

A total of 12 pokes. The nurse was a poking wizard-- she double fisted it and did 10 all at once. Jackson hardly budged and just said, "ouch!"

After a year and a half of the doctors telling me that kids cannot have seasonal allergies before they are 3 years old, I finally convinced them to have Jackson tested. Using the doctors words, Jackson has the severity of allergies he would normally expect from an 8-year-old, not a two-year-old. It took a lot of composure to not shout, "I told you so!!!" I know my kid, k? So, now we at least have a way to prevent his allergies instead of always just treating them after he has all of the symptoms.

We left that day with about a million (or five) prescriptions to help manage it- pills, eye drops, nose spray, refill inhalers... and also to consider having him do allergy shots. Ugh. It's a five year treatment program of receiving allergy shots with a serum made uniquely for his allergies. He will start having shots every week and then every six months, he will go a week further between shots (every two weeks, every three weeks) until he gets to every 6 weeks. He will then finish up the remaining of the 5 years going every 6 weeks. And at the end, he will be allergy free, or at least significantly minimized.

Do I want to take him in to get multiple shots weekly? Not at all. Do I want an extra thing to keep track of? Nope. But, how amazing will it be that he will never know the miserable symptoms of severe allergies. Derek has done the shots and got amazing results within just a few months, so we know it works... and his allergies are awful. So, we're going to do the shots.

And so, I couldn't lie to Jackson. I had to say, "yes, they will poke you." He seems cool about it all. Hopefully he takes it like a champ. Plus, he gets a sucker and a sticker every time we go.

Loose Ends

We are having a great time down in Springfield visiting friends and going cool places. The best part is that we still have two days ahead of fun before we head home!! I didn't bring my card reader to upload pictures of what we've been up to over the past weekend, but I have some loose ends to cover from last week!

Jackson had his first sleep-over on Thursday night. Elizabeth had to travel that night and I volunteered to keep Chacey. I took them to the community center that night (we all know swimming makes kiddos tired!) and they had a super fun time. They were both asleep by 8:30 and were so excited to see each other first thing in the morning.

I took Jackson to get another haircut. It seems like I just took him in for his last hair cut, but I guess that's how it works with little boys. I told her that I wanted it pretty short so it wouldn't be in need of another haircut in just a few weeks. She did a great job. I'm still adjusting to his hair being so short, though. It makes him look too grown up! You'll get a good look at it when I put the pictures up from our mini vacation.

We went to Sports Cuts and he loved that football was on TV... and all of the attention the ladies were giving him!!

Jackson had his 2 year well-baby check up on Friday. I am SO excited to be back at Jackson's original doctor (we had to chose a new pediatrician when his hospital system dropped our previous insurance). Jackson was pretty funny throughout the appointment. He sat really still when Dr. Munger came into the room and just eyed him up and down for the longest time. He eventually warmed up to him and called him Papa.

Jackson has continued to impress me so much with his level of understanding. I explained to him on our trip there about what would the doctor would be doing. And while we waited for the doctor after the nurse came in, I showed him what the doctor would use to look in his ears. He was completely compliant throughout the entire appointment! Even when he got his flu shot, he just looked annoyed but went right back to looking at his book. He is completely healthy!

Height: 34 inches (50% percentile)

Weight: 31 pounds (80% percentile)

My healthy boy who doesn't play pretend.

I took Jackson in for his 18 month check up today (he's 19 months, two weeks). The doctor said he's healthy and happy- a perfect combination. And no shots today, woo hoo!!!

weight: 28 pounds - 80th percentile

height: 34 inches- 80th percentile

Head circumference 20.25 inches- 97th percentile

She went through an Autism awareness checklist and was pretty inquisitive about his (in)ability to pretend. I just really don't think kids posses the cognitive ability to play pretend at this age. Maybe he does play pretend and I'm just not seeing it. He sometimes picks up something that's not a phone and says hello like it is a phone, but I don't think it's pretend- it just resembles a phone. He doesn't go over to the Elmo kitchen and pretend cook or have a pretend tea party (their example). I am confident that Jackson does not have autism, however I wish she wouldn't have talked about it so much. 

Babbling and pointing (which is a very non-Autistic thing to do) while we wait.

Next appointment- two years. But I'm still in denial that he can even be anywhere close to the two year mark. It just isn't happening.