A Visit to Dr. Booger

It was a stressful week. David had a visit to the pediatrician and for some reason, I wanted him to be on his best behavior. By best behavior, I am not saying that I wanted him to wait patiently and be polite, as I would have expected of our older son during his five-year checkup. I guess I really wanted David to give the performance of his life and amaze the pediatrician with the incredible progress since his last visit. In my fantasy, David waits patiently, shakes the doctor's hand when he enters the room and makes unceasing eye-contact with him as he expresses his delight at seeing him in perfectly articulated, complete sentences. He would then grab the pen from my grasp and solve some differential equations on the developmental questionnaire that they gave me to complete. Think Einstein at his five-year checkup. Anyway, it did not quite go as I had envisioned.

I amused myself as we were waiting by making a game of the questionnaire. "Do you have any concerns for the development of your child's speech?" How many exclamation points should I include after my yes answer? "Has your child been seen by a dentist in the last six months?" Yes, he has twice been seen by a dentist, where he smiled sweetly and resolutely refused to unclench his jaw.

David did wait patiently, stepped on the scale willingly for the first time and generally cooperated with the nurse. When the doctor arrived, he did look at him and say "Hi, Doctuh Boohuh." He even signed the word doctor while he said it, but I wondered where the "Boohuh" part came from. I know it is David's approximation of the doctor's last name, but I laughed to myself as I realized that it was also David's word for booger and, incidentally, not really very close to doctor's last name. Maybe we were really witnessing David's sense of humor. His reaction when I first mentioned the doctor visit was "No, hoo hoo," which is his way of saying "No thank you." It was followed by, "No, hoo hoo. No, hoo hoo. No, hoo hoo." and in case I had not heard correctly the first four times, a final and very emphatic, "NO......HOO......HOO!"

All in all, it was a good visit. David was pretty tolerant, although he refused to do some of the things that were asked of him. He absolutely would not write his name, even though it is something that he does at school almost every day. He would not draw a picture, instead carefully crossing through all of the questions that I was supposed to complete with him. He did have his moment of brillance, however, when he held up the pen and announced very clearly, "P......E......N."

Well, until next time. Goodbye, Dr. Booger.