Do You Hear What I Hear?

It has been quite a week! It has been such a blessing that both the Irishman and I are off for our Christmas break. It all started last Friday…

We had a half day at school so I hadn’t checked my phone all morning. When I did I found half a dozen missed calls and a text and e-mail all from the Irishman. He’d dropped off the kids at day care, but then the car wouldn’t start. After a long saga of nothing going right, the car made it to the shop.

We were supposed to go to a party that night, but we had to arrange pick up of Caitlin’s latest medicine while we were down a car. She won’t take liquid, so we thought we would try capsules and mix it into applesauce. When that didn’t work I tried mixing into melted white chocolate. I had a tiny pit on my finger and tasted it. It was TERRIBLE! We realized then that there was no chance of mixing the capsule contents into any food. To say I was stressed might be the biggest understatement of the year.

Thankfully Caitlin never ceases to amaze us. The kid can swallow the capsules. We hand the “no bite” pill to her with a cup of juice. She will swallow it and then cheer for herself. It is most impressive!

Saturday we met some friends at a boat parade.

At one point we thought we saw Caitlin tugging at her ear, but we didn’t think much of it because there were fireworks at the parade and it was loud. By Sunday morning she was complaining about an ear ache. By Monday afternoon we had a follow up meeting with the ENT.The double ear infection was showing no improvement and her hearing test was not so great. After going over our various options we were scheduled for surgery for tubed for the next morning.

We had to be at the surgery center at 6:30am Tuesday, so we kept our PJs. Caitlin was so brave!

We didn’t have a sitter, so Sean came, too!

She was away from us for only about 20 minutes. When we got back to her she had just woken up from the anesthesia and she was M.A.D. We have never seen her like that! I’d been warned that she would be upset, but I was expecting sad and weeping, not screaming and violent! She crawled around on the floor, she yelled, she kicked, she bit us. The Irishman got her to the car and she refused to talk or look at us. We were relieved when she fell asleep!

When she woke up we were at Sonic. The Irishman cautiously asked if she wanted something to eat. The reply he got back was a sing-song, “Okay!”

Our baby was back! Caitlin loves breakfast burritos, so she was thrilled.

By the time we got home she was all smiles. We could tell a difference as soon as the drugs wore off!

Caitlin is really good about taking her medicine, but right now there is a lot. She has a chewable allergy pill once a day, 4 antibiotic capsules a day, and ear drops 3 times a day. Needless to say we have stooped to bribes. Take your medicine and we’ll give you some chocolate. You want a marshmallow? Take your medicine!

Her favorite though are the lollipops!

My parents made this lollipop trees years and years ago and I recently ended up with it. Caitlin is in love!

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Today was a wonderful day. The Irishman dropped the kids off at school this morning so that we could finish up our Christmas shopping. We’d planned to do a lot more early in the week, but we ended up at the doctor, surgery center, and the mechanic instead. (BTW, the car us okay. It spent 4 days in the shop, but the repairs ended up being minimal!) This afternoon Morgan moved some boxes for me in my classroom. We made gifts for the kids’ teachers. We had a lovely lunch. We bought the last of our Christmas gifts. It was fantastic.

Tonight we enjoyed more Christmas festivities as a family of four, but more about that later. For now it is late and past my bedtime. The kids are sharing a bedroom tonight for the first time, so we will see how it goes! Let’s hope we all get a good night’s rest!