Doctor visit

Yesterday was Meikiina's well check. She grew 2.5" and gained 6.5 pounds. She is again at 50th percentile for both height and weight. This is the third year in a row that she has been a 50th percentile for both height and weight so she is growing exactly as she should. Dr. Benson was very pleased.

When the nurse told Meikiina that she didn't have to have any shots, Meikiina was SO happy. She always worries so much about shots. Then the nurse scored even bigger when she told Meikiina that she doesn't have to have any shots until she is 11! She just chattered and chattered to the nurse after that. I was amazed as she is not much for chattering to just anyone. She's usually pretty reserved

Dr. Benson and I talked a long time about several things. One - I was concerned about allergies. We really would love to get a cat. We miss having Rascal around and would really love to get another cat. Meikiina always had kind of itchy eyes and under her eyes was the purple coloring that always makes me think of allergies. About a year after we lost Rascal, I noticed that Meikiina was not rubbing her eyes and they looked so good and I started thinking that I bet she has allergies. I then started noticing that any time we were somewhere that there were cats, she would hold them and pet them and cuddle them and would start rubbing her eyes. I discussed with him the reactions Meikiina has when she is around cats. I also described 2 severe reactions she has had when she has been petting horses. She got major hives all over her face both times. One time her auntie Nurse Janelle was with her when this happened and she was very concerned. Anyway Dr. Benson said we could test if we want, but if she is having reactions like this, she is for sure allergic to cats and horses. So no kitty for us. :-( Also, if she will be around horses we have to start treating her the day before with an allergy medication so that she doesn't react to them. The doctor did say that we most likely could get a dog if we want a pet. He suggested that we test it by having Meikiina visit and play with dogs, where we know that they are not around cats or horses and see if she has a reaction to it. If she doesn't we should be pretty safe in getting a dog. Now we have to decide if we can change our hearts into doggy hearts. Yes, I love dogs. We always had dogs growing up. But I love big dogs and I just can't see having a big dog in the city. Doesn't seem fair to me. It's a big decision and we'll just have to see what happens.

Meikiina with our beloved Rascal

The other thing we talked about alot was anxiety and perfectionism. As we've talked about alot lately, Meikiina has high anxiety. She is also a perfectionist. He gave me lots of ideas to help us out although right at the moment I can't even think of specific things we talked about here. Alot of what we talked about here was almost more to help me out, to help me feel better about being her mom. Meikiina was also very impressed with Dr. Benson. She chattered to him too. She wasn't going to let him go she was so enjoying talking to him.

So we had a good healthy growing year, and I look forward to the upcoming year to see what it brings.