In 2 days...

...Peanut will be twenty-one months old!

He's just three short months shy of being 2 years old and he just doesn't seem old enough for that,. I mean in some ways he does: he talks up a storm, he behaves...often times better than his brothers. He uses silverware, he's starting to show signs of potty training.

Take today for instance. Today I took Peanut to the doctor about a rash on his tummy and to see if it was food allergy related {bubba is allergic to eggs and milk and when he was eating those things regularly, he had a rash}. He also has a runny nose and cough that I thought should be checked out. Turns out the rash is not a allergy thing. It's actually a very common skin fungus called Tinea Versicolor. All we have to do is wash his belly with Selsum Blue shampoo once or twice a week and it'll go away. And the runny nose/cough is most likely a virus...he and Pooks both have the same symptoms as well as an ear infection each. Antibiotics for both.

So while the rash isn't caused by food allergies, we still had blood drawn to test for allergies due to "poor weight gain" and family history. See Peanut, truly is a little peanut. At his 1 year check up he weighed 21.2 lbs. At 18mos he weighed 22.4 lbs and today, buck-naked he weighed 24lbs exactly. In 9 months he has grown taller but has gained less than 3lbs. Thus he's fallen from the 25th percentile, to the 20th, to were he's at now, about the 17th. Dr. S isn't highly concerned; he's getting taller, his parents are both smaller than average, etc but because of the family history of allergies she thought we should rule it out just in case.
 
The method of testing? A blood draw. They were testing for any sensitivity or allergy to dogs, cats, nuts, eggs, milk or wheat. Now I know grown adults that don't like having their blood drawn. Bubba has had this done several times and it usually involves me holding him as tightly as possibly, at least one nurse holding his arm down, another nurse who draws the blood and a whole 'lotta tears. And the thing is, Bubba is 4 years old. And I can't blame the kid, I don't know anyone who thinks ''Oh Goodie! Blood draw--YES!" But reminder, Peanut is 21 months old. So we were all kinda expecting the worse.

We get back in the little room and I hold him in the chair. The 1st nurse ties the blue rubber thingy around his upper right arm (doc matt feel free to inform me of the real word) and she starts feeling for a vein. No luck. So she switches to the left arm. No luck. So she calls in another nurse and he thinks that he's found a usable vein in the left arm. They consult a 3rd nurse who checks it out and declares that that it itsn't a vein but an artery and that won't work. They move back to the right arm and between the 1st nurse and 3rd nurse ''find'' one. Meanwhile Peanut is just looking at them like ''what the hell are you doing''. Never fusses, never even moves his arm.

So they get all ready to draw on the left side; 1st nurse sticks him while second nurse holds his hand. Needle goes in and after, I kid you not, two minutes of rooting around in there it is decided that the vein has ''rolled''. They remove the needle. And Peanut? Did not make a peep. Not a grimace. Not even a flinch did that child move. He just watched. And he continued to watch as they searched for a new vein on the left arm. Same routine only this time the 3rd nurse does the draw and she gets it on the first try. They suck 4ml out of him and again, he doesn't bat an eye. Not a tear is shed, not a yelp...nada. We get done I pick him up and hold him, telling him how big he was and he looks at the cotton balls taped to the bends in his arms...looks back at the nurse and says ''Bye".

That was it. Piece of cake. The really ironic part? This evening when Nanaw came over she asked why he still had the taped cotton balls on his arms; I told her because I couldn't bring myself to yank the tape off...hell I'm a grown up and it hurts me. So she reaches over and yanks the tape off...Peanut looks at her, gives a glare and a little body shiver and says ''Ouch!" Apparently, the removal of the tape hurt worse than the removal {and attempted removal} of the blood?