I took Grace to her 7 year doctor’s appointment today. I adore our pediatrician and he was in fine form today, joking around about going on an adventure with Grace, he’d be Jack, she’d be Annie, just let him get his backpack (the characters from the Magic Treehouse books she is reading obsessively).
She’s gotten a lot taller, clocking in at 4’2″ which is 80th percentile. She’s still birdlike, weighing 42 pounds. Apparently her BMI is in the 6th percentile. I guess that’s what life is like when you don’t eat and you run around approximately 8 hours a day. Also likely explains her strange upper body strength, as demonstrated in the photograph above.
As I watched Dr. Rick look in Grace’s ears I remembered all of the ear infections she had as a baby. I flashed back to appointment number infinity in the winter of 2003 when she was wailing all night long and her ear drums were bulging. I left that appointment like so many others clutching a prescription for amoxicillin like it was the holy grail: this piece of paper would restore my sleep. It seems like yesterday – oh how cliched but oh what truth.
And then I listened to the two of them joking, heard her shy laugh as he poked at her belly and ran his finger down her spinal cord when she leaned over in the scoliosis test that I remember. I felt a tidal wave of awareness of how incredibly lucky I am to have this sturdy and healthy child. This luck feels both incredible and fragile: you never know when bad news will come. But today, it is true: she is healthy and strong and I feel intensely aware of my blessing.
Thank you, thank you universe. I stood on the sidewalk watching my tall, skinny child jog awkwardly to the school door. She turned the handle, surprising me that she had the strength and familiarity to turn it as far as is necessary to open it. She slipped through the heavy door without looking back. I stood and watched the door, gulping deep breaths of the great good fortune that is my healthy child, that is this gorgeous clear winter day, that is today.
Thank you Lindsey. Thank you for posting this at the end of a day where I was absolutely at my wits end with my 5 year old Hannah. Because now I'm reminded how LUCKY I am to have her. Have her healthy. She may have driven me out of my mind today but she's a blessing. A crazy blessing. But a blessing nonetheless. So, thank you.
And Grace is beautiful, as beautiful as your words describing her.
My 10-year-old skinny-minnie, always hungry, never gains weight, problematic stomach ailments, had testing done last week that people only have when they're 50 – and she's fine. Amazing. She was crying in relief (didn't want to give up gluten!) I was crying in relief (nothing worse).
Beautiful recap of a doctors appointment, and so much more! So glad it went well. What an adorable little girl, what a blessing.
lindsey you are so articulate and good at focusing on the daily details that we as parents could all take a second to step back and appreciate. thank you. i enjoy your blog immensely.
We do need these moments as parents to remember how fortunate we are. Because there are so many many times that we are pushed to our limits. The lump in the throat reaction is one I know well, and experience almost daily. My third and last baby is full-time entertainment, but I cannot believe she is past babyhood and onto toddler years. It makes me choke up to think about it too deeply. But she? Not looking back. And I wouldn't want her to, of course.
Oh the beauty of that child. The knobby knees. The energy felt through a moment captured in time. A moment she appears still but I can feel that she is not. She is filled with buzzing bits of energy and light. Surely like her mama. Surely she is her mother's daughter. And what a beautiful thing. What a gift.
(I've been busy. But I am here. Oh and ear infections? Picked up some Amoxicillin just today. BooBooLip.)
Healthy children are such a blessing. I have thanked God so many times for modern medicine. Without it, I would not be here. Nor would my daughter. Or my son. I am grateful.