December 11, 2006 - Monday
At their annual physicals today Harry measured in at 44 1/4 inches tall and 44 lbs. Jeremy, just less than two years younger, was measured at 42 1/4 inches tall and 42 1/4 lbs. That's some symmetry!

The rest of their appointment was filled with the normal eye chart reading and questions about their development, along with obligatory blood pressure and heart rate tests and the doctor looking in their ears and throat.

The appointment ended with a symmetry of a much different kind. Since Jeremy will be going into kindergarten before his next physical this was the year for his three shots, just as it was for Harry two years ago. Yet their reactions to the shots was as different as when they were babies, except backwards. At 15 months, Harry cried like every other kid, but Jeremy did not and instead directed a stone face, if somewhat confused, glare at the nurse. Then two years when it was time for Harry's get-ready- for-kindergarten shots, he was the champ, saying nothing more than a mock "ouch" that made the nurse smile with a degree of relief. Today, Jeremy, who's turned into the sensitive one, cried after the first shot, then harder after the second and third shots. (Harry, clearly remembering how brave he was and how brave I said he was two years ago, kept saying "I like shots." OK, maybe that's just being a 6-year-old.)

And maybe I should say a couple of word about my own health, since I had a doctor's appointment today, too. Mine was a follow-up appointment to a blood test that showed my cholesterol level at 227. That's up about 20 points from the last time I had it checked a few years ago and something like 20% higher than I might have thought and hoped since my ordinary diet is really very healthy by most measures. That leaves two main possibilities for why it's so high. First, turkey has a lot of cholesterol and I had the test done after a week of eating leftover Thanksgiving turkey soup. I'm hoping that such an out-of-the-ordinary dietary pattern might have caused something of a spike. The second possible explanation, which is more likely I suspect, is that it's heredity. My mother has high cholesterol and it's certainly starting to look like I've got those genes. I suppose the good news is that both of her parents lived well into their 90s. Still, I've been thinking lately, and actually saying to old college friends, that I'm starting to notice that my body is slowing down a little - scars not healing quite as fast, muscle aches lasting a little longer, strenuous activity taking a more noticeable toll, and that sort of thing - and that it seems like it's time for me to pay a little more deliberate attention to my fitness. I've been lucky that fitness is always something that came pretty natural to me through little more than the way I live my life. But I'm starting to believe I can't get away with being casual about it so much anymore.


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