This recovery has been tough.
We have done everything an ailing child can do that requires no effort or energy.
Beyond the countless hours of cuddling…
…and the mindless hours of television…
…Dash has realized that he doesn’t get in major trouble for creating garbage words out of tiles.
And poor Pips, who comes into their bed every hour with a new idea. This time, she was excited to go swimming! Too bad they have been forbidden from the pool for 2 weeks.
It is amazing how slowly the clock ticks when you want it to fly by!
When I was little, I LOVED taking my parents to back-to-school night and showing off all of my work and projects. So four days after they went under the knife, I was sure that Navy and Scout wanted to go show me all of their work and projects. I think at first they thought it was a good idea, but about five minutes into the night, they were dragging! They literally looked like zombies walking around their school. I guess that could have been anticipated, since they hadn’t been out of bed for four straight days — and were eating about 200 calories a day!
It was a short night — about 5 minutes in each classroom.
They saw a few friends, and even tried to play for a split second.
But when they both looked at me with the saddest and most exhausted eyes, I packed them up, and drove them back to their family bed.
Poor kids who are little troopers.
It is very rare that my kids are ever apart. So when my kids were recovering from their tonsil surgeries, and feeling crappy, they were still asking where Pippi was — and when she would finally get home. The day finally came that Pippi returned, and four children who felt incomplete — finally rested easy because they were all together again.
Pippi even pulled her tent out to the Family Night Room, so she could go to bed near all of her best friends!
Megan, being the genius that she is, insisted on taking Pippi while my kids got their tonsils out. I hate not having my kids every waking moment, but I thought she might be on to something, so I relented for one day! When the tonsil craziness hit, that one day turned into four days. I hated having her gone, but when I was waking up eight times in a night to crying kids, I was glad that she wasn’t adding to the work load.
Every once in a while, I missed her and FaceTimed her. Her response? If….IF she would even come to the phone, she would say, “I not go home. I stay at Auggie’s house.”
I geared up all of my kids in their matching PJ’s to go and get their tonsils out this morning. On the way there, we were joking and laughing. It even carried into the waiting room.
But it is all fun and games until you go under the knife.
All three got geared up, and were all in rooms next to each other. I went from bed to bed taking pictures and video of the pre-tonsilectomies. They were each given a syringe full of medicine that made them loopy, and they were all hilarious. Especially Dash and Navy! Somehow, Scout kept his cool pretty well.
Even I got all geared up!
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I thought I had it all handled….until I was in the waiting area with Scout, and they called me in to go and comfort Dash who had just gotten out of surgery — and was HYSTERICAL!
I rushed in, and the nurse asked where my husband was. I told her I sent him back to work, but she replied with, “You better call him….cause you’re gonna need him!” I also called the world’s greatest nurse….B!
So one by one, each kid came out.
I held Dash, and finally calmed him after about 10 minutes. Then B came and took charge with ice chips and popsicles and cartoons. Dash was in his happy place with her.
Navy came out next, and was sound asleep, but waking up every other recovering patient, with her snoring! It was the loudest snoring I have ever heard from anyone! We videotaped it, and sent it to everyone because it was comical. When she finally woke up for real, she was a little out of it. She loved the Popsicles, but there were a few silent tears that ran down her cheeks that about killed me.
Scout slept the longest when he came out. Maybe because he took Elephante as his “comfort item”. When he came to, he was a trooper. He just watched cartoons quietly until it was time to go.
When we finally got home, I put them in a family bed. This was an especially awesome family bed because Micah took Scout’s mattress out of his room, and made it a permanent fixture (during recovery) in the Family Night Room.
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I very rarely feel like I am in over my head. But I will admit that the first 30 minutes of recovery with Dash and Navy struggling were pretty intense. Thank goodness that Trilby was close by to come to our rescue. And that Micah’s work was also close by the surgery center. When they say it takes a village to raise a child….I would like to change it up a bit and say….it takes a village to get three kids through tonsillectomies!
When she came home from China, Nonnie brought home a real Chinese calligraphy set for Navy.
I’m not sure Nonnie could have come up with a better gift.
She was loving it, and I was loving watching her practice some real Chinese characters she has learned at school.
And I think her Dad loved the finished product.
Little did Pippi know that she was digging her own sand grave, that had her in tears just minutes later.
After Pippi’s meltdown, Navy decided to show her the ropes.
When I knew that my insurance was going to hit its max this year, and that we would probably hit the family max….I started to make every dr. appointment I could think off.
First stop, tonsil checks for my kids.
After the doctor said that each of my kids had a 3 out of 4 on the “bad tonsil list”, I signed them up for tonsillectomies. So immediately after our ENT appt. we went straight over to get their blood work done. I mean….if they are all getting their tonsils out on the same day — only a week from now — we need to get moving!
My tough girl offered to go first, and took that needle like a champ!
My hesitant boy was really nervous while laughing about it, but then said, “That was it? I didn’t even feel it!”
And my baby boy cried “Wee Wee Wee” all the way home.
This is a picture of an embarrassed little girl after I asked, “What is wrong with your eyebrows?”
Apparently, Nonnie’s mini razor that shapes above and below her brows didn’t take too kindly to the middle of Icka’s brows.
Live and learn little girl!
And in the meantime, have faulty brows.
As part of Spring Break this year, we booked a tent cabin at Camp Curry and headed to Yosemite.
As usual, our kids had a blast, and we hit basically perfect weather the whole time.
But my favorite part of the trip was before we hit the Yosemite Valley.
On our way, there were fields and fields of wildflowers that were so pretty. We just kept oohing and aahing, so as I drove, I turned off onto a dirt road to get a closer look.
We got out and started creating a bouquet of wildflowers that was so charming, that we put it in front of our tent cabin for the duration of our stay.
And every time Navy and I walked into our cabin, it made us extra happy to see the bouquet we had picked.
Another perk of our wildflower jaunt, was the rattlesnake that had been run over moments before — that was still rattling and amusing our whole car for fifteen minutes.
When we finally hit Yosemite Valley, it was as beautiful as ever.
The whole trip was packed with hiking, rock-throwing, story-telling, collecting, etc.
Another best part of the trip was the sleeping. Micah and I were worried about the sleeping arrangements with all of us in the same tent. But after days full of adventure, we showered up in the family bathroom, and then each kid got in their bed (or tent for Pippi) and listened as I told stories from when they were young, and I was young. And with a few songs to follow the stories, the kids were zonked out. And in the morning — they slept in until after 8am. About 5 minutes before their dad woke up.
On our way driving out, we stopped to see if we could see any climbers on El Capitan — and amazingly enough, we did!
It took so long for our kids to find the tiny specks of color on the mountain, but they were so satisfied and amazed when they did.
And this insanely beautiful picture was from one of our three stops on our way out of the Valley’s twisty roads.
Poor Scout was almost green he was so nauseous from the roads. But a quick walk through the fresh air and pine trees fixed him up pretty quickly.
But then Dash started having a sick tummy.
And then Navy.
But I am pleased to report that there were no “incidences” that had to be cleaned up in the car — or anywhere else for that matter.
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