A change in voice a little earlier than expected

Cruz had his tonsils out today. (Yes, this is after the surgery.)

It was the fastest surgery I've ever seen.  We checked in at 7:45, they took us back at 8:20, they wheeled him away at 8:40 and the doctor consulted me at 9:01.  10 minutes later I was with him while he was coming out of it (which wasn't the easy part as he realized how bad his throat hurt.  He did not want to be there,) and then at 11:05, we were discharged and headed home.

He wasn't happy until he got to push himself and ride in the wheelchair.  For some reason that made his day.

He came home and we set up a futon mattress, movies, and a white board to write on.  His first week of summer diet will consist of shakes, jello, smoothies, otter pops, yogurt, pudding, and other soft foods that he can eat.

They gave him the little stuffed dog at the hospital.  He has wanted that all day.  He was teasing about being able to remember everything before the surgery so he named it "Woofers."  He did remember his dog's name when he came out of it but he didn't remember any of his sisters.  He said he was the only child. 

Another visit, another bear

She managed to stay healthy for the two weeks that it went through the other kids. But when it hit her, it hit her hard....Katanya is three and it's her 7th ER / hospital visit. Early Thursday morning she woke up with the croup. Over the span of an hour and a half, I tried taking her outside twice to get her to loosen up. It kept getting worse so at 5a.m. we headed to the ER. After a round of steroids and a dose of the epinephrine mist we were ready to go back home. At this point she was bouncing off the bed (literally as she thought it was funny.) We made it home just in time to get the girls ready in their costumes and their hair done and on the bus. We are out of school on Friday so I am looking forward to sleeping in. It was a long day with little sleep the night before.

Facts
This brings our total (ER / visits) to 16 since being married.
Katanya is learning (is it learned or inherited?) Jacob's smile. When I told her to smile in the hospital her response was, "I am, like dad. See?"

One bear = One visit

Every bear on this bed equals one visit to the hospital. Whether it being a surgical or an emergency room visit. Katanya has the far right five. Yep, five. She's the leader. This doesn't count the visit to the ER when we were in Utah and ended up at Primary Children's. The lone yellow one is Kirsten's tonsillectomy. The most recent is Cruz's brown bear. He got this last Friday when he went under surgery to have......

(drum roll).......

9 cavities filled. Yes nine, my other three girls had perfect checkups but he was the unlucky one. They feared with him being so young that they would never be able to do them all without traumatizing him. He was as sweet as the come and all the nurses loved him. Recovery was fast!

Come to think of it, Cruz should technically have two bears. He had an ER visit in December of '06 when he tripped and fell against the only real wooden door in the house. Jake had been working for a neurologist at the time and he advised us, "if it was his son, he would do this." So Cruz had a CT scan done to make sure everything was okay, which it was. He missed out and didn't get a bear.

NOW, if you could only imagine how much these bears really cost.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN

Katanya's surgery went very well. The only difficulty came when they pulled the tube out from the anesthesia it triggered a little Strider (croup). We were expecting this and it made me so glad we waiting the two weeks for her to get bettter. She had a breathing treatment and was watched for a about half an hour and then she was brought to us. She enjoyed just being held and being able to watch cartoons. The hospital always give a child a bear when they come in. Katanya now has four diiferent colored bears. (Not really something to brag about.) She didn't ever let her orange bear from her sight. Even when she came to the nurses said she asked for her bear.It didn't take much to get a smile. The rest of the day, she enjoyed Popsicles, jell-o and juice. Looking at this you would think Jake was the one that had to get up at 4:30 a.m. And of course the funny part of the day. I should just let you look at the picture and come up with your own take of the story. Maybe I will just put in a few key words.

IV
Lactated Ringers
Full diaper

(I had just changed her prior to this happening. This was just one "spill". The nurse must have had sympathy because she brought Jake a pair of scrubs.) I should have just let you imagine what happened. The spot was just too perfect.With her being so young they observed her overnight. In the morning she ate her pancake, had the IV removed, and she was ready to leave and go home. We stopped at one of our favorite places (Jamba Juice) and went home to the family. After three days of little sleep (not more than 3 1/2 hours) I am looking forward to my own bed and a nice long night of sleep.

THE DAY HAS COME

• Today's the day. In a couple of hours we will be at the hospital getting things underway.

• She was so happy playing yesterday. She will be so upset with us when she realizes what we let them do. Hopefully not for too long. It's all because we love her.

• I'm praying things will be simple for once with her.

• Bye-bye big tonsils. Bye-bye snoring. Bye-bye apnea.

Bubble girl

I am loosing my mind with this girl! I need a little bubble so I can put her in it when she wants to run and play. Last weekend, we had a series of unfortunate events for Katanya.

Here it how it goes (or happens)

• #1, Thursday night she falls coming out of Cruz's bedroom and hits the floorboard. Luckily it wasn't very bad and didn't swell at all. Kid's witnessed this.
• #2, Friday while loading for our short trip to Utah, she was outside and tripped by the stairs. She scraped her cheek on the sidewalk. Not very big at all. No witness but me.
• #3, Friday night we were at Larry's house. Jake and Larry had gone outside to discuss landscaping, so I had taken the kids into the basketball court room and let them play with all the balls. I had closed the door so we wouldn't be loud upstairs. When they came back in Larry opened the door and Katanya (daddy's girl) saw Jake and went running to her. She somehow figured how to run straight into the door. This one a little more severe. After an ice pack, and watching for signs of concussion, she was okay. It didn't bleed for more that what you see in the picture. Larry witnessed this.
• #4, Sunday, while at Jen's house after the blessing, Katanya was standing on the ground (I wouldn't let her sit on the bench) and was playing the piano. When she was done with her beautiful sound-making piece, she turned right into the piano bench. She didn't even stop for more than a kiss on this one before she was off again.
• #5, Isn't pictured on this. It happened after I took these. Sunday, while at my other friend's house, we were in the backyard letting the kids play in the sandbox. When Katanya was done she stepped out. Everything fine. She started walking and tripped. Her cheek scraped the rosebushes. Everyone outside witnessed this.

After this, I didn't even chance anything else. We went inside, put up the baby gate and and she played in the playroom. It worked. It's also a good thing that I actually have people to verify this because otherwise she looks pretty beat up. I don't know what to do. I watch her, I don't leave her unsupervised, but I don't want to fuss and baby over her all the time. All I can say is I'm starting with having her vision checked. Seriously.

P.S. Sorry you can't zoom in on the pictures. I can't figure that out.