All Ears

Well, if Children's ENT of Houston had a frequent user program, then the Deans would certainly qualify.  We were back last Friday for baby Eric to get tubes in his ears.  Given this is our 4th experience, neither Matt nor I were too worried.  In fact, I event sent Eric to school that morning and went into the office since we didn't have to be at the surgery center till 11ish.  I remember a similar timing with Olivia but I was so panicked and nervous that the thought of going into the office seemed ridiculous.

It was the exact same location that we went with Olivia and, coincidentally, the same location that Matt had his ACL surgery a few weeks ago.  In fact, right when we walked in, one of the nurses recognized Matt.  Same green chairs..

Same wagon and toys (literally I think the exact same toys because many didn't work) used to distract the kids from their extreme hunger

Same quick surgery (10 minutes) and heartbreaking view of your child after

But lucky for us, the aftermath -- the part we were both most worried about -- was not the same.  With Olivia, coming out of the anesthesia was hard.  It made her confused and nauseous, fussy and shaky.  Both Matt and I braced ourselves for a similar experience with Eric.  Thankfully, that was not the case.  He woke up quickly (after about 7 minutes) and immediately nursed.  (This poor baby was SO hungry -- the anesthesiologist said he was trying to lick his face mask because it was strawberry scented.)  And then, he was completely fine.  More than fine actually - super happy.  He was smiling and cooing for all the nurses and showing off his latest trick of "blowing kisses."  At one point, our nurse said "I'm going to open the door so he can look around."  And, without exaggeration, 5-7 nurses came out of the woodwork and stood at the door fawning over this baby.  Matt and I sat pretty speechless as he charmed all these ladies.  And then, we took him home.  He slept, played and ate as usual.  It was wonderful.  We stuck pretty close to home over the weekend so he could rest and hopefully this will clear up his ear trouble.

And...sister and daddy had a special date on Sunday afternoon to see the 8th grade play - High School Musical Jr.  The reports from Olivia were glowing.  My favorite story out of the experience was Matt said as he was watching he was thinking "My goodness this is cheesy.  I can't believe I'm watching this."  And just then, Olivia leaned over to him and said "Daddy.  This is so good!  Do you think there will be autographs at the end?"  God I love that girl.

This week marks the start of Matt's usual hectic travel schedule for the 1st Quarter.  It will be several weeks in a row of him being gone, which I never look forward to.  This year will also be with two kids and...I can't even really write about it yet...but he's back on crutches, so we will have to see what that brings.  But hopefully we will make it through unscathed.