Chiropractor in Waiting

There are a few men in Alex's life that he looks up to with eyes of wonder and adoration. First, of course is dad. In fact, Alex has come to the point in his life when going with mom to the store is no longer a viable option if it's possible to stay home with dad and watch football. But there is a second man in his life that he absolutely adores and I'd probably say he's earned the title of second place when it comes to male role models (judging by Alex of course) and that guy is Uncle Ben. His uncle is a chiropractor who has worked on me several times. So what does Alex want to be when he grows up? According to his teacher and the many, many times he tells me, he wants to be a chiropractor and work with his Uncle Ben. It's very amusing. Anyhow, one of things that Alex has watched his uncle do when working on my shoulder is called Kinesio Taping. It's basically this nifty stuff that helps muscles and whatnot to heal. Since the first time Alex watched his uncle do this, he's been absolutely fascinated by the process. Heck, he's been fascinated with the whole chiropractic gig. But the tape really has his interest. I can't tell you how many days I've spent getting "fixed" by Alex when he pretends to be my chiropractor. It's adorable.

Long story short, I did something pretty bad to my right rib(s) while coughing/throwing up/etc during this pregnancy. As an act of desperation, my brother-in-law recommended trying to tape my own ribs with some cheap KT tape from Wal-mart after watching an instructional video on YouTube. Alex watched that video over, and over, and over again. Pure 100% fascination. He jumped off the computer after the 10th time watching it and excitedly said, "Okay mom! I can do this. Lift your shirt up and I'll tape your ribs for you!" He was serious folks. No joke. Well, Josh was the lucky winner who got to tape me. But as it turns out, the stuff didn't stick to my skin at all. Alex stumbled upon the rest of the unused roll in a drawer in the bathroom a few days later and while I was lying on the bed one day attempting not to go into labor, he asked if he could use the tape to fix my legs (which incidentally weren't in pain). As the tape was essentially worthless, I said I didn't care. I kid you not. The kid spent at least an hour kinesio taping my legs. The good news is...the tape isn't cluttering up my bathroom drawer and the sore muscle from all those pregnancy charlie horses is gone. The bad news? Josh got his arm taped and turns out that removing tape from a hairy arm is not pleasant. Alex asked me to take a video of him so that he could show his uncle Ben how great he is at taping. It was darn cute so Uncle Ben? I hope you watch this. Your apprentice in the making.

Super serious.

The result of a six year old's taping job.