Dec.
30, 1999 - Thursday
Harry had his two-week check-up with the family doctor today and gained rave
reviews for his health and general well being: a credit to his mother's home
cooking. The doctor was a bit taking aback at the report of 6.5 hours straight
sleep last night, but Harry's more common 5 hours suggested simply a fortunate
bi-product of his size and weight. And, with each such report of his good health
I do feel quite fortunate.
While Harry's shares birthdays with Beethoven and Jane Austen, its another Dec
16 celebrity, William "the Refrigerator" Perry, who he's emulated
most to this point. Weighing in at 9lbs 12oz puts Harry a full pound over his
birth weight and in the 95th percentile for two-week old babies.
Harry did get a shot today: the first dose his Hepatitis B vaccine. He did not
like it. Yet, it did give his mother a chance to see the face that his father
saw for those 20-odd minutes on Sunday. She did not
like it. Fortunately, young Harry recovered fairly quickly and did not drag
out his mother's torment. Unfortunately, the doctor notes that virtually every
visit for his first two years or so will include a shot of one kind or another.
No wonder so many kids learn to dread going to the doctor so quickly.
One uplifting curiosity from the trip to the doctor: the office is so close
to our house and the day not so chilly that we made use of Harry's stroller
for the first time and walked him to the clinic. On the way home, independently
two complete strangers passing us on the sidewalk bid us a greeting. This kind
of thing happens regularly in Wisconsin and Minnesota, of course, but I've been
living in this city for more than a decade and can't say as I remember it ever
happening to me here. Harry: he's our ticket to society I tell you..
