Joe's Seven-Year Well-Child Exam

Fans. We know! You'd have given us up for dead had many of you not seen smoke signals.  Here we are. Our silence has been due in part to technical difficulties flowing from the acquisition of a new computer (and indeed, we are still restricted to pictures taken with the iPhones) and in part to just the trials and vagaries of Life.

We will plunge in to the here and now and loop back in the coming days. Our Hero is SEVEN--!!!!!!! That's a seven exclamation mark sentence. He had his seven-year well-child appointment late Friday afternoon. He fell asleep between his pick-up at camp and Dr. H's office, not that you would know it once he was there. Fans, he was in fine from, chatting up Dr. H about this, that, and the next thing--sharks at the zoo, why Dr. H uses a computer with a mouse that's a red dot. . .you name it. When asked what he liked to eat, he said not macaroni and cheese (which he would mainline were it possible), but--wait for it: carrots. And strawberries. This last, at least, we believe. He was lolling on the exam table like he was at home on the couch watching Wildkratts. That was how we saw he hadn't remembered to take off his pajama shorts. They were peaking out underneath his other shorts. He was on. Fire.

He continues to be a big dude: weighing in at 56 pounds (72%) and measuring 49 1/2 inches (71%). He continues to have some common, benign but irritating skin virus that produces little flesh-colored bumps on the affected area. It's been about one exasperating year now and the virus has not "run its course," so we're to taking him to the dermatologist. Apparently, she will apply beetle juice (for real) and that will evaporate them. Otherwise, Our Hero is the picture of a well child.