Little Dr. Namer

So maybe TV shows like Grey's Anatomy and ER are inappropriate for a normal 2 yr old to watch on a regular basis, but we watched Grey's Anatomy together this week (he was asleep by the time ER hit the airwaves anyway) so I had the opportunity to use all the proper platitudes that mothers are supposed to say about how much doctors can help people feel better.

Also, once he left the hospital after his ordeal we presented him with this Sesame Street Medical Kit so that he can pretend to be a doctor too.
We (mommy that is) like the stethoscope that has a little button you push to make a heartbeat noise. Whenever he comes across the Oscar the Grouch blood pressure cuff with the Telly Monster gauge, he comes over to one of us (usually Mommy) and wants to check our blood pressure. Interestingly enough, that was truly the thing he hated most (after his "boo-boos" of course) in his prolonged hospital stay. They would come around every few hours to check vital signs (blood pressure and temperature) and he hated them both. What he didn't mind so much (as long as those boo-boos were relatively covered up) was the stethoscope every doctor (and nurse and nursing student and respitory therapist) wanted to use to hear his lungs. Maybe because some of them let him play with it too so it wasn't so foreign and strange. Also, at some point we took BP readings on most of his menagerie of stuffed animals since he was so bad about the BP cuff on himself.
But what was baffling to me was the fact that he really hated the underarm thermometer. What could possible be bad about that I wonder? Especailly in comparison to some of those other things...portable X-ray machines being brought to your bed, chest tubes attached to drains on the floor, a beeping pulse-ox monitor whose alarms were annoying loud - so much so that he would "shush" it whenever it went off (usually when he was trying to stand up on the floor for a few minutes or move around on the bed)

Maybe I'll get the opportunity to kvell about him being a doctor one day - after having spent so much time in his short little life (we're quickly approaching that 3rd b-day) around hospitals, but right now I am too busy worrying about him gaining some weight so he can grow. He left the hospital at 24 lbs and 2 weeks later with his shoes on he had gained 0.6 lbs. I know some dogs that weigh more than that!!!