This year’s well-checks were anticipated with much anxiety. Last year, Kory fainted while simply listening to the conversation I was having with the nurse over his need for a chicken pox vaccine booster. (Not his first fainting spell.) We, of course, did not go through with the shot because it took a while to calm him down after he came to – white as a sheet, cold sweat, the whole bit. (And don’t even get me started about the amount of vaccines required these days – I live in the land of chicken pox parties and now have a lot of mixed feelings about vaccines in general.) So for the last few weeks, he has been checking the calendar regularly counting down the days to the inevitable.

His blood pressure was over normal range for a 13 year old, and I explained to the nurse that he was quite worked up over the shot. She decided to do that first and get it over with before the actual exams. (Cooper was having his 11 year old well-check.) As a precaution, he was lying down on the table for the shot. Cooper took his sitting on the bench. Each shot took about a half a second, and there was a wave of relief that washed over my 108lb, football playing, 13 year old boy – even incredulity that he had been so worried about nothing. And then came the comic relief……

Each exam room at our Pediatrician’s office is stocked with several children’s books, an Etch a Sketch, and a Magic 8 Ball – which is a fortune telling toy (gateway to the occult and all that, I know, I know) to which you ask a question, shake, and turn over to see the answer as revealed through a small window, on an icosahedral die (thank you Wikipedia) that floats in some sort of blue solution. Isocahedral means 20-sided, therefore there are 20 possible responses to your question. Cooper picked up the ball and began to interact with it…..

Cooper (to the Magic 8 Ball): Am I a weirdo?
Magic 8 Ball( with Cooper reading aloud):As I see it, yes.
Cooper: shakes the ball hoping for a different response
Magic 8 Ball: It is decidedly so.
Cooper: highly offended, shakes the ball again
Magic 8 Ball: Without a doubt.
Cooper: shakes a last time
Magic 8 Ball: You can count on it.

Cooper: OK, well is Kayla a weirdo? (She was in the room also.)
Magic 8 Ball: My sources say no.
Cooper: Incredulously shakes the ball again
Magic 8 Ball: Very doubtful
Cooper puts the ball down – it obviously knows nothing.

Leave it to Cooper to lighten the mood with his comedy routines. We love our little weirdo!