With 4 days left until Christmas, I thought I would share a little update.
Despite the many Christmas posts, I am not really feeling “Christmassy” this year. It seems like our family is focused on one event and once that is done, we’re on to the next one. Point A to Point B, then on to Point C. We haven’t had two minutes to really appreciate the season, even though we are decked out and have done some holiday activities.
Once Ella’s dance recital was over, the focus shifted to her surgery. She had an ear tube that was stuck. She also was set to have tonsils and adenoids taken out, if they needed to be. The surgery was on Thursday and she did really well! The tonsils got to stay, but the adenoids came out.
If you do “Elf on the Shelf,” you know the kids are not supposed to touch the elf. If they do, it loses its magic and cannot fly back to the North Pole. The morning of her surgery, there was a note from “Santa’ that said that he gave Twinkles (the elf) special powers for that day. She could hold her and take her to the hospital with her. She was thrilled!!
We arrived at 6am and were on our way home by 9:30! It’s crazy how they shove you out of there after surgery! When we got home, we all took a nap, and there was a special surprise that awaited.
You may remember this from last year. One of our neighbors puts out a mailbox for kids in the neighborhood to mail letters to Santa. Each child receives a response. The kids love to go there and drop the letter in the mailbox.
The neighbor messaged me on Facebook and asked if there was a good time to drop off a letter. I told her about the surgery and she said she would drop it off then. After our nap, we woke up and I told the kids, “You will never guess who just texted me!”
They asked who it was and I said “I’m not sure, but it says it is a North Pole number!” I said that there were photos attached. So I opened them in front of them.
Santa himself delivered their letter!!! When they saw the pictures, they both ran to the front door. I opened it and we looked around. He must have got back in the sleigh and went home! They wanted me to look in the mailbox and sure enough, there was his letter. Talk about two giddy kids!!
It looks like they both made the nice list and will be getting what they asked for this year. Thanks, Santa!!
Christmas Rock
This was too cool not to share. In Flint, MI, there is a big square rock. It has been there as long as I have lived in mid-Michigan. I’ve seen a lot of things on it. People have spray painted memorials to loved ones who have passed away. Sometimes it is in honor of the anniversary of their passing. There have been marriage proposals in it. There have been patriotic tributes for events like 9/11. There have been funny paintings and sad paintings.
For Christmas, a local mural artist named Johnny Fletcher did his part to get folks in the Christmas season. The first mural, which was featured on many websites, featured the mean one – the Grinch.
This mural became the talk of the town. A week or so later, he did yet another one. This time it was of a couple of misfits!
The quality of his work is truly amazing. It didn’t take long for folks to ask if they could buy a print of these. I hear he was selling them through his Facebook and personal site. Those would look pretty cool on a wall. However, they look downright amazing on this HUGE rock.
The countdown to Christmas continues … Have a great weekend.
You may recall that our daughter had tubes put in her ears a year ago. This was due to many ear infections.
A few days ago, she woke up with yellow nastiness cakes around her ear and on her pillow. They were able to get us in to the doctor, who says the eardrum has burst.
She’s on antibiotics and ear drops. The ear is still draining and it almost seems like the ear needs a physical cleaning. She gets three drops in the ear three times a day. The issue seems to be that it pools inside. I end up pulling on the ear lobe a bit to get the drops in.
She’s not in any pain now (surprisingly). I have a feeling if it keeps looking like it does, we have have to take another trip to the doc.
Remember my last blog? Remember the list of things I had to do and things I wanted to do? Well, all of that went out the window this weekend!
While it is disappointing that I didn’t really get anything done, our kids are the priority. Ella has been extra whiney this week. We now know why. Late Friday night, she spiked a good fever. Saturday morning, we called our PCP to see if we could get her in to see the doc. Saturdays used to be for emergency appointments only, but I guess that isn’t the case anymore. They said they could get her in on Monday.
Well, Sam and I weren’t going to sit around and fool with that, so Sam took her to Urgent Care. Sure enough, she has a double ear infection. The urgent care doc said it looked terrible and prescribed some antibiotics. We went and saw PCP today and she scooped out a bunch of wax from one ear which really seemed to help. She told us she couldn’t see the ear tubes, which probably means they fell out. Because of that, we had to schedule a follow up with the ENT doc.
Tuesday is the Daddy/Daughter Pirate adventure I’ve been looking forward to. Whether or not we go to that is still up in the air. Ella is still not 100%, I caught a spring cold, and it is supposed to rain Tuesday. If we don’t end up going, I will figure out something else that we can do together.
At midnight tonight, we’ll start a brand new year – 2022. Some have compared a new year to a book. The book with 365 blank pages – one for each day – and said that the book is ours to write. There is truth to that.
As I looked back over my “book” entitled “2021,” I see that (despite the pandemic and all the crap that came with it) I really did have a good year. Bear with me, he’s the recap:
January
January started with some snow. It actually looks like we should be getting snow again this week. Ella absolutely loved being outside in the snow. It was fun to watch her try to figure out just what all the white stuff was. Today, when she sees it, she get’s excited and yells, “Snow! Snow!”
In mid-January, we scratched our heads and wondered just how Ella was 11 months old! I mean, it seemed like she was just born!
The pressure was on as we closed in on her first birthday. With Covid, we weren’t quite sure if we’d even be able to have a party for her.
February
As we got closer to Ella’s birthday, Sam was just not feeling right. 3 days before Ella’s birthday, we found out that baby #2 was on the way!
This took us both completely by surprise! There was great excitement all over again. The hardest part was keeping it a secret…
Ella’s first birthday was a fun and busy day. We ditched the pink blocks and marked the birthday with a HUGE number “1” balloon. This was followed by a trip to the Sea Life Aquarium, the Build a Bear place, and cake at Nana’s house.
We were glad to be able to get some professional “1st Birthday” pictures, too!
March
In March we got our first look at the baby we now know as Andrew/AJ and announced Ella’s promotion to big sister.
Ella also got her first haircut
March also consisted of many walks around the neighborhood and stops at the park.
April
Big brother, Dante’ turned 19 this month! Before that, Easter fell on my mom’s birthday. We got Ella all dressed up in her Easter dress, stopped at the cemetery to visit grandma on her birthday and then went to Nana’s for an Easter Egg hunt!
Ella is so very blessed to have wonderful people in her life. Aunt Margaret is one of them! (She will kill me for posting this picture, but I just love this!!) She and cousin Marissa came to visit and the highlight was watching them read books together.
We also found out the baby’s gender, but that wouldn’t be revealed until May.
May
Birthday’s have never really bothered me, mostly because I opt for the Jack Benny attitude and say that I am stuck at 39. However, in reality I turned 51. 30 was big. 40 was tough. 50 a bit hard to swallow. Over 50? Well…..I examine my own mortality every day.
The month started warm enough that Ella got to spend lots of time in her sandbox and pool.
We revealed that Ella was having a baby brother and got another look at him on an ultrasound.
Ella and I worked on a special project for Sam for Mother’s Day and we got to visit the Detroit Zoo.
May also brought Ella her first taste of corn on the cob!
June
My second oldest boy celebrated his 14th birthday in June. We got to spend Father’s Day together by visiting Crossroads Village. They had a Classic Car Show there and we walked the village and rode the train. It was such a great day with my kids!
It was SO hot that day!!! By the end of it all, Ella was physically exhausted. June was a hot month and we did get to get out and enjoy walks in the park and a day at the splash pad.
July
By July, Sam was 5 months pregnant and was so sick. The pregnancy was a rough one on her. The heat didn’t help things. Despite that, the middle of summer was packed full of amazing things and our family had loads of fun.
We celebrated America’s Birthday, Ella had her first visit to the public library and bowled for the first time, and we all visited the Saginaw Children’s Zoo.
August
As Summer drew to a close, we continued to squeeze as much into it as we could. I got to spend a perfect day doing a daddy daughter picnic, my name was finally on the board at the Corner Cone for a free ice cream, Ella spent lots of time drawing with crayons, and our stress levels were through the roof as we took Ella in for her ear tube surgery. We also got another peak at AJ and had a visit from my brother.
September
Fall! My favorite season of all. I was glad to be able to get together with Margaret, Walt and my buddy Chris at Margaret’s house. Since she’s already mad at the one picture I posted, I’ll just share the one she told me I could share. Hopefully, that makes things a little better….
We always love going to get pumpkins and decorating the front of the house for fall. Ella seemed to like it, too.
Ella and I also got to take one last trip to the Saginaw Zoo before it closed for the season. It was a great day for us, and Sam actually got to relax a bit.
October
We had been told more than once that there was a possibility that the baby would come before his due date. He held out almost until the date! Just two days before he was born, Ella and I got to go outside and enjoy the fall colors.
On October 11th, AJ entered the world. I watched in awe as my son was born and all the pride of being a daddy again filled my soul. We weren’t sure how Ella would handle it, but she welcomed him with open arms.
They still did not have a photographer at the hospital, so we went to JC Penney to have some newborn pictures taken. AJ looks spiffy in his outfit!
While this wasn’t Ella’s first Halloween, it was the first real Trick or Treating adventure for her. She was happy that big brother was there to walk with her. AJ was obviously way too young to attempt to go out this year.
November
Fall walks are among my favorites. I love looking at the colors. Ella and I took many fall walks and there were many instances where she’d just play in a pile of leaves! AJ kept us all busy and so it was just Ella and I making the trip to Bronner’s to get his ornament for the Christmas tree. We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at home and got the house ready for Christmas.
December
The final month of the year brought many happy memories. Professional Christmas pictures, my annual reading of Dickens, AJ turned 2 months old, a visit from Papa and Grandma, Christmas Eve with my boys, Holiday lights at Crossroads, our first Christmas as a family of four, and the anticipation of a brand new year.
Blog highlights included my entries to the 2021 Song Draft, salutes to Soupy Sales, my grandpa, and Ernie Harwell, a guest blog from my pal Max, silly blogs about hats and Bernie Sanders’ mittens, fishing memories, my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, and a blog about an amazing cartoon Dog Dad.
There were many sad moments in 2021. I lost classmates and friends to cancer, heart disease, and of course, Covid. If the past two years have taught me anything, it is that life is precious and another day is not promised. You never know when it will be the “last picture,” the “last phone call,” or the “last visit.” It takes me make to that quote that my band director wrote on the grease board my senior year. I have quoted it many times. “Live every day as if it were your last. Someday, you’ll be right.”
Life is too short. Live. Laugh. Love.
As we welcome 2022, I pray that it is a good year for all of us. May we find it full of happiness and good health. May God bless you and yours in the upcoming year.
Get ready. The Book of 2022 awaits. Grab your pen and turn to page (January) 1.
Thursday we were up early and took Ella in for her surgery. She had her Tympanostomy (the fancy medical term for “tubes in the ears”) done and it was a success. It was probably the fastest surgery I ever waited through!
Sam got the call Wednesday night that the surgery was scheduled for 9:40 Thursday morning. She was told to be there two hours prior. We live an hour from the hospital, so it was an early wake up for all of us. We had hoped that Ella might just fall back asleep on the way down, but that didn’t happen. She wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink after 10pm, so we were worried that she would be very cranky and hungry when we got there that early.
We arrived at 7:30am and checked in. The gal at check in kept giving us the “stank eye,” and it didn’t take long for us to figure out why. Whoever called us was supposed to tell us to arrive at 9:40. I know exactly what this gal was thinking, because I feel the same way when patients arrive an hour early for their sleep study.
It worked out to our benefit, or so we thought, because they ended up calling us back to Pre-Op early because two patients had not showed up. Naturally, they showed up late and threw everything off in the back. Factor in there was an emergency during one of the operations that slowed everything down for everyone else, and the wait became VERY long. Thankfully, we brought plenty of stuff for Ella to do while we waited.
I love the gown they put her in. It had all kinds of cartoon fishes on it. Despite being hungry, she did really well. She started to cry when the nurses came into the Pre-Op room, but I think that is just her associating nurses to shots. They brought in one of those hair nets and a zip up body gown for one of us to go back to the OR with her while they put her under.
Sam was naturally worried and upset about her having surgery, even though she knew it would be an easy one. I decided I would go back with her. I’ve never seen anyone go under, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. So when the doc finally came in to check paperwork and such, I was told to get ready so they could take her back.
Funny visual. The zip up gown is all white. I put my legs into this thing and could immediately tell that this thing was not meant for fat guys like me to wear! I was able to zip it up about half way to belly and the zipper totally popped off! Sam and I chuckled and I just threw that silly net over my head. Unless they had a gown sized “tent,” this was the way I was going into the OR!
When it was time for us to go, I was actually surprised that she let me take her. She’s been such a mama’s girl lately. She kissed Sam as she came to me and I could see her tearing up. It was a short walk to the OR and they had me lay her on the table. She was already upset. I held her and sang to her as they put the mask on and she drifted off to sleep.
Tympanum with tube in left lower quadrant. This will help drainage of fluid behind the eardrum and help prevent further ear infections.
It took me about 2 minutes to get back to the Pre-Op room to get Sam. It took another 2-3 minutes for us to get to the waiting room. We hadn’t been sitting down but maybe 5-6 minutes and the doc came out to tell us she was done and that all went well. It was probably less than 5 minutes and they took us back to recovery where she was coming out of the anesthesia.
In all honesty, that was the worst part. They warned us that kids tend to cry a lot when they come out of it, and she was. One of the nurses was holding her when we went back, and they immediately handed her to Sam. She calmed down a little, but you could tell the anesthesia was still wearing off. We stayed back there about 30 minutes and we were free to go.
She was very snuggly when we got home, as we expected. By the end of the night, she was back to her old self. She was so happy and chatty this morning when she woke up. She ate a big breakfast, and played a lot. Nana came by with a little present for her, an easel/chalk board to draw on. She’s been all about sidewalk chalk lately and we’ve kept it outside. Now, however, the chalk is indoors. This means that the couch will have plenty of chalk on it until we can make sure she knows it goes on the chalk board.
Pondering just what to draw on the chalkboard ……
When Ella was born, she did not pass her hearing test as a newborn. Later, she did pass it, but they said that the ear that did not pass the first time would be prone to ear infections. When we saw the ENT, he told us that the ear drum wasn’t really moving like it should and that the tubes will not only help with ear infections, but with that, too. They told us that sounds would be a little more noticeable for her now, and things that didn’t used to bother her, may for a few days. I’m guessing with both ears hearing well, she will begin to talk more and more.
I know it was a very easy and routine surgery, but I was still thankful that it all went well.
There are things that you do as a parent that you hate, but you know you have to do them. With my boys, I was always the one who took them to get their shots. There is no worse feeling as a parent than having your child look at you as you hold them down so the nurse can administer the shot. You feel like you are betraying them. It is truly an awful feeling. You know that you are doing what you need to do, but it rips your heart out!
Sam has scheduled most of Ella’s shots on days that she is off work and I work. I have told her that I would take her and she doesn’t need to always be the one to do that. She says she knows, but she feels that Ella “needs her mommy” for comfort after those pokes.
So Ella is having surgery this week to put tubes in her ears. She’s had one too many ear infections and the ENT said tubes will help. Here is the catch, before she can do the surgery, she had to have a Covid test done. It had to be done during a specific time frame, in this case Sunday or Monday. Sam works both days, so I was the one who took her to have it done.
It had to be done at either the hospital or one of the hospital affiliated Urgent Care facilities. The hospital is an hour and 15 minutes from home, where as the closest Urgent Care was about 55 minutes away. So we had to schedule a Virtual Visit with a doc on Sunday, in order to be able to get the actual Covid test done on Monday.
When I arrived they told me to bring her inside, because it would be difficult to do a curbside swab on someone her age. They brought us right back to the room, and Ella began to cry before anything even happened. She’s had enough shots to recognize an exam room and was probably thinking she was getting another one.
When the nurse entered with the swab, Ella began to cry even more. The nurse told me to cross her arms and hold them with one arm. I was then to hold her head against my chest so they could do the swab. Let me tell you, that girl of mine is strong! I had a hard time holding her. She fought big time. As soon as it was all over, I held her and she gave me the “Why did you let them do that, daddy?” look. I hate that look.
I kept telling her I was sorry. It breaks my heart to see her like that. Once we left the building, I held her in the parking lot and calmed her down before putting her in her car seat. I found a light up toy and that made her smile. I was so glad her mood changed quickly. Of course, I had to treat her to pancakes at McDonalds for being so brave.
Been a crazy week here. Ella wasn’t feeling all that great Monday night and then woke up Tuesday with a 104 temp. We began to alternate the Tylenol/Motrin every four hours and were told that if the fever continued on Wednesday to do a Tele-Med visit. Wednesday morning, the fever was still there, so we did the video visit with the doc, who insisted that we bring her in.
Once we got to the office, the fever had broke, because we had given her Motrin before we left. The doc checked her out and she was diagnosed with another ear infection. We were told when she was born that she may have issues with her ears (There were issues with her newborn hearing tests.). Sam immediately asked about ear tubes. Did you know you have to get 6 ear infections in 12 months before they will even consider putting tubes in? I didn’t.
At any rate, she was sent home with an antibiotic and she’s been doing better. By Saturday, she was like her normal self. I was called off work Friday night, so I was able to get some sleep. Saturday was sunny and hot. We had heard about a splash pad near by and we decided to take Ella there. She loved it!
At first, she was a bit apprehensive, but once she saw other kids running around, she was screaming with joy and running all over the place.
We all got a little sun Saturday. I was hoping to go back there today with her while Sam slept, but she spiked her fever again. I kept her inside most of the day. I made a trip out to Meijer with her to pick up a few things and when I got back she walked right to her stroller. She signed “more” to me, and I knew we had to take a walk. Because it was so sunny, I didn’t want her out there too long, so we did a quick walk around the block.
After her nap, she wanted to go outside. I had filled her pool, and figured she might want to just play in it. She sat in it for a bit, but for the most part, she wandered around the yard, playing on her slide, and “sunbathing”
She’s been on the antibiotic for a few days now. I am hoping that she feels well enough to go to the splash pad tomorrow.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 