4-year well child visit

Ben had his four-year well child visit today. As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, he was really friendly and outgoing at this particular appointment, which is a great improvement from his usual/recent doctor's office behavior. He was asking the doctor all kinds of questions, and he giggled through the abdominal exam. It was really cute. They took his blood pressure for the first time (102/58), and he thought that was great. He was 43.2 lbs and 43.75" tall. I was really irritated to learn that he "needed" (and I put "needed" in quotes because I was led to believe that these were both required immunizations, which is not true) two shots; here we had had this great visit and now we were going to ruin it! He cried a little when I told him he'd need the shots, but he took them both like a champ and I was really proud of him. 

Interesting side story: it was at this appointment that Matt gave up thumbsucking. Forever. I was holding the little guy on my hip while we waited for the doctor to be done with Ben, and of course Matt had one thumb in his mouth and the other hand twirling around in my hair. The doctor came over, popped Matt's thumb out of his mouth, and said, "You need to stop sucking that thumb." Matt looked stunned. The doctor went on to explain that if Matt kept sucking his thumb, he'd get a "big boo-boo" and might even suck his thumbnail right off. (It's true! Google it!) At the end of this serious conversation he repeated, "You need to stop sucking that thumb. Can you do that?" and Matt, embracing the gravity of it all, quietly said, "Yeah."

And that, my friends, was the very last time Matt ever sucked his thumb.

No joke! Not once did he pop that thumb back into his mouth, not by accident, not absent-mindedly, not to comfort himself. He slept terribly for about a week, I think because he was used to soothing himself to sleep with that thumb when he'd get restless in the night. Honestly, I'm both relieved and sad to see the thumb go - it was so darned cute... but I am glad not to have to fight that battle with him later.

Can't believe my big boy is FOUR!