Marathon and Checkups

Well, we missed Oscar's one-month birthday! It just goes to show how busy things are at our house... Chris has gone back to work last Thursday, and I am at home with Oscar during the day, and with both kids after 3 or 4pm when I pick up Clara. Since Oscar's still sleeping like a tiny baby (ha!) - that is, in 2-3 hour chunks - we basically have to go to bed at 9pm (just after Clara falls asleep most days) in order to get approximately the right amount of sleep. And Oscar resembles his sister in that he really likes to be held, and wakes up quickly when laid down in his bed, so most things take a while in our house, even breakfast or dinner. But we're having lots of fun, too, especially on the weekends!

This past weekend we had terribly miserable weather in Berlin, it was raining from Saturday at lunch time throughout the whole weekend and the beginning of the week. Too bad, since the Berlin Marathon was happening again last Sunday, and as you may remember they run just a few blocks from our house. We still got up early (the wheelchair and hand bike races start just after 8:30am) to watch it - since we're at kilometer 4 or so (3 miles) the racers make it to our location very quickly. But this time all of us were cold and wet (except for Oscar, I think).


Still, 40000 completely soaked people ran in the marathon this year! We didn't stay to see them all pass us - after we had seen the disabled racers and the elite runners, and also a huge part of the big mass of marathon runners, we went back home. In the picture, you can see ca. the second group of elite runners.


After these two hours in the cold we got back home and had a hot chocolate and something to eat! Clara said that it was still fun to watch (we weren't sure if she'd liked it because she was really miserable with the cold), but announced that she would like to see it again - when it's not raining!

Yesterday I took both kids for their scheduled check-ups: the one-month check-up for Oscar, and the three-year checkup for Clara. Thank goodness my dad happened to be in town that afternoon because he accompanied us to the doctor.

First, the doctor confirmed that Oscar and I are doing a good job breastfeeding. He weighs 4890g and measures 56cm. (A week ago, our midwife weighed him at 4620g at her last home visit.) Oscar also had an ultrasound of his hips and kidneys done, and was thoroughly prodded everywhere. He was complaining (getting annoyed), but not out-right crying, and when I gave him my pinkie finger to suck on he did that with vigor and was very calm for the rest of the check-up. Afterwards, he must have been so exhausted he just fell right asleep on my dad's arm and slept all through Clara's tests!

Clara was weighed as 12.4kg and measured 90cm (although I think she is about two centimeters taller, since the nurse measuring her held the tape at an angle). It was amazing to me how calm Clara was throughout the check-up. She didn't get worried once, and she even answered some of the doctor's questions (usually, she's not one to talk to strangers).

Finally, a nurse did some additional tests with Clara: a hearing and a vision test, and even an EKG (picture below)! The nurse had clearly never talked to an almost three-year-old in her life before... anyway she didn't know how to talk to Clara at all. She started the hearing test by asking Clara: "So, do you know these illustrations?" (Kennst Du diese Abbildungen?) I don't think Clara has ever heard the word before, and also she has never worn a headset and didn't know what it was. I didn't think the test was going to work, and was ready to put a stop to it if Clara got upset.


But actually, it worked pretty well in the end. Clara was hearing a man's voice on one ear at a time and was supposed to point to the corresponding picture. After a while when she initially didn't want to play the game and didn't understand what it was about, I coached her through it, and she did fine. Then they had a similar game for the vision test (see a little shape a distance away and point to the same one on your card in front of you), and by now Clara was into the concept of these games and it worked right away.

Finally, the EKG:


It only took a second. Despite her facial expression in this photo, Clara actually didn't seem bothered by having those things stuck on her chest and hands and feet. And even taking them off was no problem (thank goodness little kids have no hairs on their chest!). Apparently doing an EKG is standard at least in our pediatrician's practice.

So, it took us about three hours to find out what we already knew going in: we have two great kids that are both doing perfectly fine! =)