A week of doctors

After a relatively light schedule over the summer, we’re back full-swing into our routine of many doctor visits. Thankfully the number is tapering, and we’re approaching what would be “normal” for any family with three kids … but they always seem to fall in clusters, no matter how hard I try to be careful in my scheduling. 

This week, Colin was back at the pulmonologist on Monday, and on Tuesday the twins had their first official dentist appointment. (Colin had been to the dentist once before to make sure he didn’t have “preemie teeth,” a condition that is fairly common in micro preemies like him where the teeth don’t have enough enamel and are more brittle than they should be.)

Poor John ended up taking all three kids to see Dr. Lestrud (Colin’s pulmonologist), thanks to the teacher’s strike and my work schedule. It made for a very full, and I would imagine a rather raucous, exam room. Overall, Dr. Lestrud is happy with Colin’s progress. His growth is good (for Colin — he’s on the growth chart, unadjusted, at roughly 4% for weight and 7% for height), he’s generally healthy, his lungs sound clear … but he still has a little rattle in his lungs when he exhales. 

So we’re back on the inhaler for the fall/winter/spring season. Fortunately, they seem to be going a little easier this year … at least so far. 

The dentist appointment also involved the entire family (myself included this time) bringing chaos to the office. Veronica was very nervous about going to the dentist; Colin not so much. As we were walking from the van to the dentist office, Veronica looked up and me and asked, “Roni cry at dentist office?”

“No sweetie, you won’t need to cry. Irma is just going to look at your teeth.” So we practiced saying “Ahhhhh” and “Eeeeee” for the rest of the walk. 

Once we were inside, Veronica was very serious and told me, “Colin go first.” She is very good at volunteering Colin to go first for anything new. 

Colin, of course, was his usual “in the moment” self. I don’t know if it’s just his personality or an area where Veronica is ahead of him developmentally, but he doesn’t seem to think about/grasp the significance of things. If we tell him we’re going to the doctor, he marches off to the doctor. If we tell Veronica we’re going to the doctor, she starts imagining the visit to the doctor, starting with the toys in the waiting room and running through the possibility of shots. 

Both kids did very well. Colin sat in the chair by himself, but John had to hold his hands. He (Colin) was afraid of “Mr. Thirsty” — the tool that sucks the extra saliva out of your mouth — so he just used his water bottle to rinse after his cleaning. Veronica sat on my lap, but was fascinated by Mr. Thirsty and had fun putting it in her mouth and taking it back out. 

Colin still has one molar left to come in, so he has 19 teeth. Veronica is still at 16, but two of her molars are poking through. (Hurry it up already, teeth, we’re tired of this teething process.) Colin’s teeth are showing signs of grinding; Veronica’s look good. Overall, though, they got two thumbs up from the dentist and the hygienist, and we’ll be back in six months. 

Tomorrow. Afternoon.

Veronica decided at the end of last week to get back on the potty training bandwagon. Colin has been doing great, and even can go for a big stretch keeping his diaper dry. Unfortunately (from a potty-training perspective), we went camping again last weekend. Not the easiest circumstances for potty training.

It poured rain pretty much the entire way to Wisconsin (not the best start to a camping weekend), and we weren't sure we were going to be able to get the tent set up (it has a mesh top). Fortunately it stopped raining before we got to the campground, and the ground wasn’t too wet. So Colin and Veronica amused themselves by jumping in a mud puddle while we set up camp.

They were having a blast, getting all muddy and running around, until Veronica hit the edge of the mud puddle on a downhill run and landed smack in the middle of it, on her back. I wasn’t sure where the bathrooms were, so I was glad she allowed herself to be talked down from that crisis. We basically got camp set up just in time for the twins to go to bed, so we didn’t get to do any exploring that night (although Ethan did).

The next morning, Veronica told me she needed to go potty. By now, we had located the flushies (I wasn’t going to even attempt to bring Veronica into the pit toilets — they were pretty ripe here at the end of the season), so Veronica and I set out for her first bathroom break of the trip.

It was a bit of a hike, but we hustled along because I wasn’t sure how long she would be able to hold it. When we got to the bathroom, I took her into one of the stalls so she could go potty. She took one look at the toilet, turned to me and said, “No go potty. Go tomorrow. Afternoon.”

And sure enough, Sunday afternoon when we got home, she went straight into the bathroom and went potty on the toilet like a big girl.

(Colin said pretty much the same thing when I took him to the bathroom. Apparently they’re willing to potty train at home, but not so much with “foreign” toilets yet.)

Elmo fever

My kids love Elmo. They’ve never really seen Sesame Street. They don’t have any Elmo toys (okay, they didn’t have any Elmo toys until this weekend), but they’re both crazy about Elmo. And I don’t know why. 

They know Elmo because he is on their overnight diapers. (We do cloth during the day, but use the extra absorbent overnight disposables at night.) But he isn’t on every diaper; some diapers have Cookie Monster, or Ernie, or Grover or, once in a great while, Big Bird. 

I think it may have started one night when Veronica was particularly overtired, and everything was making her cry, and kick. Putting a diaper on a kicking two-year-old is painful, so I’ll try anything to get her to stop kicking. On this night, she had Cookie Monster on her diaper, so I started singing “C is for Cookie” in my best Cookie Monster voice. The next night she had Elmo on her diaper, so I sang one of Elmo’s songs from our Sesame Street CD. And now it has become a tradition that I sing a song for whichever character appears on each twin’s diaper at bedtime. 

But Elmo is most definitely the favorite. So when we saw a stuffed Elmo at the thrift store my sister-in-law works at yesterday, we had to buy it for the twins — even though we knew they would end up fighting over it. I left it sitting out last night, and when Veronica came down with me in the morning for breakfast, I heard a joyful squeal and then “Elmo!”

After an extended love-fest between Veronica and Elmo, I convinced her to let Elmo eat sitting next to Baby Gabby (who takes all her meals with us, and has her own special bowl that Veronica must give her before every meal). So Ethan helped her find a second special bowl for Elmo, and we were just getting ready to sit down for breakfast when Colin came down. 

“Elmo!” And Colin scooped Elmo up (from his breakfast) to have his own love fest, which of course, really upset Veronica. And as predicted, the fights over Elmo began. At 7:15 in the morning. 

We ended up setting a timer after breakfast so that each kiddo got Elmo for three minutes … until Colin lost interest and went to play with something else. Veronica was generous enough to let Colin take Elmo in his stroller for their morning walk, and since then they’ve actually done pretty well with sharing. But we’ll be in trouble the next time they both are upset: Elmo has become the new go-to baby for comfort. 

I have a feeling we may end up becoming a two-Elmo household. Sigh.