Pah-Tay

It's been a well-known fact around our house that Leah has always been determined to grow up much faster than her little body would let her. If she could have walked, talked, and fed herself on day one, she would have. She's always been a child that thrives off of independence. I'm already dreading the toddler/preschool years when there are sure to be many battles and tantrums thrown over her desire to do it herself!

Her latest obsession is with the "pah-tay". I guess being a younger child is grounds for wanting to do all the "big kid" things, but to see a 17-month-old so intrigued by the toiled is quite entertaining. One day, while getting ready for baths, we busted out the old potty seat just to see what Leah would do. She obviously pays much more attention to bathroom behaviors than we thought, because she instantly started to climb up and get herself comfortable. The entire time she sat there, she repeated "pah-tay, pah-tay, pah-tay". This in itself was a miracle considering she hasn't said any clear words until just the past few weeks. Add "pah-tay" to the expanding list of Leah's vocab. Why wouldn't that be one of a child's first recognizable words?!?

Sure enough, she has made this one of her routines just about every night before bath time. She loves to take the seat, put it on the potty, and has even managed to go pee a few times while sitting there. Who knows, she might be ready for potty training. But this mama isn't!

For now, we'll just enjoy the fact that this is such a fun pastime for our little girl. Every once in awhile when it's really quiet and you can't find Leah, you just might find her taking it upon herself to go have some quality time in the bathroom. If she's not actually in the bathroom she might just be walking around upstairs carrying the potty seat, putting it down in random places, and sitting her cute little rear end on it. This girl is sure keeps us on our toes!

Surgery

It all started over a year ago when I had that "mommy instinct" that everyone talks about. I knew, after what seemed like nonstop colds, sinus infections, and antibiotics, that something wasn't right. For over a year, Caleb struggled time and time again with a variety of conditions that made me think there might be something more than just the typical 10-12 colds a preschooler catches per year. Thankfully, we found an awesome pediatrician who really evaluated Caleb's ongoing battle with this. After a few months of trying different medications (he's had so many antibiotics that some don't even work anymore) and even attempting to treat him as though he were suffering from allergies, she finally decided we should take him to see an ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor). I scheduled the appointment pronto and we went in at the beginning of May to have him checked out.

I didn't know what to expect at the appointment, but I was so glad to find out that they would take a detailed look at him right then and there. Unfortunately, that meant having to stick a snake-like tube through his nose to get a view of his adenoids. As you can imagine, this was not a piece of cake with a 3-year-old. I have never.never.never heard my baby scream out of such fear and discomfort. In the midst of the screaming, the doctor handed me the camera to take a look at the view of Caleb's adenoids that he described as "extremely large". I appreciated his attempt to make me well aware of what we were dealing with, but quite frankly I was more concerned that they'd get the tube out of my child's nose sooner than later. After calming the little guy down, we sat a talked for awhile about how these enlarged adenoids could be causing many of the issues Caleb had been having. The doctor went into plenty of detail about the benefits of removing them and I knew I would be fine with him going through this very common surgery. The doctor also decided to take a look at Caleb's tonsils to see if they were worth removing as well. Although they weren't quite as much of a problem as his adenoids, the doc still said they would be worth removing given our family history or snoring, sleep apnea, etc.

Fast forward a month, and it was June 1.....surgery day. After weeks of talking through what would happen and trying to prepare Caleb for what he'd go through, we were ready for whatever was to come. We showed up at 7:30, Caleb was in the pre-op room by 8, and then off to surgery by 8:30. By 9:00 we were sitting down with the doctor, who told us everything went well and we should be glad that his "huge" adenoids were out. After a few minutes we got to reunite with our sleepy, little guy. We spent about an hour in the recovery room and were headed home by 10:30. They weren't kidding when they said this was a very common procedure and it would go smoothly!

The first part of day 1 at home went well. Caleb was still in quite a daze and definitely felt fine with all the meds they pumped into him. At one point, I even said to Tyler that I'd be fine the next day if he'd rather just go back to work. It only took a couple hours for the meds to wear off and for me to change my tune in a hurry. By the afternoon, Caleb was miserable and it was impossible to get him to take the pain meds prescribed by the doctor. We ended up having to hold him down just to get them in and provide some sort of relief. Even with the meds, Caleb still had no interest in drinking and we had to watch closely for dehydration (a common problem with kids this young having the surgery). Day 2 was also filled with a lot of struggles, and we kept hoping that this would all get easier with each passing day. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Each day has been quite rough and we've only started to see the light at the end of the tunnel (a week later). Fortunately, Grandma Sue and Auntie Kalyn spent the entire weekend here and helped a ton!

For now, we're still in survival mode...trying to take care of our very brave, tough, preschooler (and don't forget about his wild toddler of a sister). We keep reminding ourselves that it will all be a distant memory soon enough and hopefully the payoff will be worth the pain. In a couple weeks we can get back to normal, which will probably be a battle in itself....as of right now, Caleb pretty much watches tv all day and can eat/drink whatever he wants, whenever he wants. You'd think that a 3-year-old would love that freedom, but this sweet boy doesn't want ice cream, popsicles, or juice boxes...his most common request throughout the day is: "Mommy, will you just snuggle with me in the chair". And that right there, makes every bit of the whining, frustration, and lack of sleep worth it!

Caleb in his adorable gown

getting checked out in the pre-op room

snuggling after surgery with Mommy and Daddy

Caleb on his "throne"

it's all good...until your sister figures out how to climb up there

so, he just settles for snuggling on the couch with Daddy instead

and here you have what happens when Mommy is tending to the patient and the toddler is left alone with her yogurt