Yesterday evening, after school, I took both the girls for their annual wellness checks with our favorite Chicago-raised pediatrician Dr. Kinga. It was a funny experience and energetic, entertaining, dramatic Mia was in full form. While, Ali was a bit more curious, unsure and shy.
Mia passed with flying colors and surprised us all with her 20/10 vision. She could read all the numbers on the chart - including the bottom line (below the 20/20 line) which seriously had me, the pediatrician and the nurse in giggles. They both explained that it is very rare to have such vision. So, I told Mia that she better be a pilot like Papa with vision like that!!! She was flattered and happy with the compliments.
Other tests (blood pressure, urine, etc) showed that she was in great form. Her height is now 129 cm and her weight is 28 kg. We are waiting until she hits 140cm to go back to either Legoland or EuroDisney as this is usually the height requirement for the more serious rollercoasters that T was introduced to about a year ago.
Ali also did quite well with a height of exactly 100cm and weight 18kg. Dr. Kinga marked them both on the charts and we learned their heights were in the 95th percentile and weights in the 90th. So they are in good proportion.
Ali's heart showed a murmur which I remember Dr Kinga pointing out when she was a baby. Just to be safe we went over to the cardiologist to get a better look. It turns out she has a 3mm opening between 2 of her heart's chambers. The ultrasound machine was incredible and had Ali, Mia and I entranced. Her heart was so beautiful and we could see all the valves pumping, the chambers, the entire thing so clearly. The 3 mm gap is not something we should worry about is what the cardio explained. For extra measure they hooked little Ali up to an EKG machine which I wish I could have captured on film but I didn't have my camera. She looked so cute and was so good at holding still on the table while they got what they needed. Mia finished the appointment with 2 very opposite comments: 1. Ali is so lucky! I wish they could look at my heart too. 2. She then said to the doctor (a very nice older lady who sounded like ZsaZsa Gabor but spoke Hungarian to the girls), "Thank you for looking at my little sister's heart". We all smiled as it was very sweet, sincere and not rehearsed at all.
The only difficult parts of our appointment was getting a peek into Ali's ears. She loves when I clean her ears with qtips but hates having a doctor look in or even take her temperature with the ear thermometer. She just covers them up and shakes her head no. We had to hold her to have a peek and I tried to reassure her that it didn't hurt at all. She still cried. I do remember once when she had an ear infection the other pediatrician hurt her by poking around in there. It was a while ago but she obviously remembers it and is a bit scarred by it. In time, she'll recover.
Oh, she also passed with flying colors on the hand-eye coordination tests. Especially her skill for drawing circles, squares, plus signs, etc. Kinga was very impressed and explained that these were part of the 4 year old's test but she often gives it to the 3 year olds to see if they can do it. Ali loves her drawing so it was nice to see that all her scribbling has enhanced her skill.
Lastly, we finished with a few vaccinations. This ended in big, big tears but not for long. They both were lucky to get a biscuit, sticker and balloon at the end of the trauma.
Sorry for the boring details but had to record for myself. Otherwise, I'd forget by next week.
