21 Months

Little Miss Monkey Pants ~

You've been through quite a lot this month, and you are handling it with all the grace that I could begin to expect from a toddler. Nothing ever seems to steal your joy for too long, you are so happy.

Not only did you go through your first surgery (and experience with anesthesia), but your first canine tooth finally broke through. I don't think you're all too happy with the other three impending canines, but you are surviving. By the time your birthday rolls around, I expect that you will have a full mouth of teeth...finally.

You've been playing with your babies a lot more frequently this month. You love to rock them, singing By-oh By-oh Baby Girl, and feed them with the little bottles we got for you. You are such a good little mommy!

We've been enjoying all the singing that you've been doing lately. Sometimes you just like to sing a few words, prompting us to do the singing so you can dance or play. Sometimes, though, you will sing a song all by yourself. I am absolutely charmed and in love when you sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It is just the cutest thing ever on this planet. I also love it when we hear you singing yourself to sleep up in your bedroom.

We've been doing a lot of counting this month, especially working on pointing to items as you count them. You doing a pretty good job, but counting to two seems tough, because you want to go ahead and add three as well. Practice, practice, practice.

The other day I noticed that you are almost able to play with your shape sorter independently. You still need someone to shake the shapes out for you, and you still need a little helping finding the right spot for those two "agons" (pentagon and hexagon...lol). I'm glad that you pulled the shape sorter out the other day. It reminded me that your daddy and I need to remember to spiral and scaffold and keep going back to practice skills that you've already mastered.

We're already starting to plan for your birthday, and I know it will be here before we know it. Your daddy and I love you so much and are thankful every day for you.

Your Momma

Baby's First Surgery

Kaylee's surgery (her left tear duct was opened with a metal probe and a small silicone tube was placed in the duct) was on Friday morning. We got there at 7:45 as directed (her surgery was supposed to be at 8:15). After about 5 minutes in the waiting room, which had a kids area with toys and books, they took us back to a pre-op room. This room was white walls with a hospital bed and two chairs and nothing at all that Kaylee could play with. How age-inappropriate! We had to wait there for nearly an hour. Mike ended up letting Kaylee play with his phone (she called my phone about 800 times) and then we found a surgical hair net/cap thingy and a surgical mask to play with. During this time, the anesthesiologist and the surgeon came back and talked to us and a nurse took Kaylee's stats. Kaylee was cool with all that, but then the nurse came to take her back to surgery.

I swear, they must have searched for the biggest, burliest male nurse with the most facial hair they could find. Good lord, this dude made me nervous! This was pretty much the worst-case scenario I could have picked for Kaylee. She was terrified and screaming and crying as he took her away from us and down the hall to surgery. My poor baby! After that, it was only about 15 minutes until we were called into the conference room to talk to the surgeon. Everything went well!!! About 10 minutes later, we were taken back to recovery.

Kaylee was already awake and screaming and crying and clawing to get away from the random nurse that was holding her (at least it was a woman this time). She calmed down a little bit when I got to her, but she was still pretty inconsolable. I guess this is pretty common for babies/toddlers coming out of anesthesia...they're just really disoriented and frightened, the nursed likened it to having a night terror. We got her in the car and headed home (about a 40 minute drive). Kaylee finally fell asleep when we were about 10 minutes from home, so we just took her up and put her straight in her bed. When she woke up an hour later, it was as if nothing ever happened. She was happy and ready to go with the rest of her day.

Kaylee's been great ever since then...a little more nervous about strangers than she was before the experience (is there any wonder?), but I assume that will pass. We can already tell a huge difference in her eye, too!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day I've been dreading since Kaylee was a tiny little thing. Tomorrow I will place my daughter in the hands of doctors and nurses (many of which I've never met) and trust them to do what's best for her. They will use medicine put her to sleep, put a small metal probe down through the corner of her eye and place a small piece of rubber tubing into her newly-opened tear duct.

In my head, I know that this is a very common, routine procedure and that it is what's best for Kaylee. My heart, on the other hand, is sad and frightened. At this point, all I can do is love my daughter and send thoughts of steady hands and safety to her doctor.

I can also look forward to not seeing my baby wake up with one eye crusted over. I can look forward to not pissing off my daughter by massaging her poor, swollen eye and clearing the gunk away. I can look forward to not receiving questions and comments from total strangers in the grocery store. I can look forward to knowing that the choices we made were the right ones.