well child checkup

Oh yeah, Ben had his 5th birthday well child checkup with the pediatrician on Wednesday. He passed the vision and hearing with no problems (last year he didn't really like to follow directions, so we had concerns about his vision that required a visit to the ophthalmologist...which turned out he could see just fine).

This year was the first year that the pediatrician talked mostly to Ben rather than me. She started by asking him if he wanted to talk to her about anything going on with his body. He said, "I'd like to talk about my bones today." So they had a nice little chat about how bones are important and keep your body from flopping around, how all bones are connected to each other, etc. Then she talked to him about safety issues: crossing the street, always wearing a helmet when riding bike, scooter, etc., stranger safety and gun safety. He didn't get that he had to look both ways to safely cross the street...he did know that he should always cross with an adult. When asked why he should always wear a helmet, he said, "So that cars won't hit my head." And when the dr asked what was inside that the helmet was protecting, he said, "Sticky styrofoam!". Haha, he thought she was talking about what was inside the helmet, not what was inside his head. Once we got that straightened out, he knew it was his brain that was being protected. Stranger safety he was kind of iffy on. He couldn't quite grasp the fact that I wasn't always going to be with him. The dr kept asking what he would do if a stranger tried to get him to go with them, and he said he'd just tell/go get me. He learned he needed to yell "HELP!" over and over if someone tried to physically take him. He did know that strangers could take him away and never give him back and do bad things to him that would hurt. And finally, gun safety. A big FAIL in that one! When asked what he'd do if he saw a gun lying on the table at a friend's house, would he leave it alone or pick it up....of course he said he'd pick it up. We explained that it was very dangerous, don't touch it, go get an adult, blah blah blah....but I don't think he really got it. We'll have to work on that one.

He's 50% for both height and weight. My little average joe. Got two shots in the leg, which sucked...but then he got to pick out three toys from the treasure box AND got a sticker....so it sucked a little bit less in the end.