Surgery day

Today (October 12th) is surgery day for Andrew. He is having his tonsils out just like his big brother did. His recovery time will be about two weeks so we were able to get a collection of homework while he is out of school.

Mom and dad are probably more nervous about his procedure than he is. He is our tough little guy.

I will try to update this post on how everything is going.

5:50 am
Wake up call for Andrew.
Andrew: *in a sleepy voice* Dad, what day is it today?
Dad: It’s Wednesday.
Andrew: Only two more days for Star Wars the Clone Wars.

His favorite show that comes on every Friday. I was expecting him to mention his surgery but it was Star Wars.

6:30 am
Checked in. Andrew scored some stickers at the front desk and the check-in desk.

7:00 am
Andrew: *looking around in the waiting area* When are we going to go?
I think he is looking forward to going back to sleep.

7:30
Back in the waiting area. Andrew gets a new friend…Cubbie (beanie baby). Meeting with the staff that will be performing the surgery. So far so good. He is given a choice on flavors for his mask. Mom and dad are not surprised that he picks cotton candy. No cameras allowed! Nurse takes a picture with Andrew decked out in his scrubs.

7:50
Still waiting. Nurse brings dad some scrubs since dad will be going back with Andrew. Dad is appreciating the no camera policy.

8:15
Walking back to the OR. Resident makes a comment on how cute Andrew is, walking and soaking everything in. Dad walks to the OR with Andrew. He doesn’t want to hold dad’s hand…he’s a big boy.

8:20
Anesthesiologist puts Andrew at ease with a story about cotton candy…dad almost falls asleep from the story. Andrew dozes off with no issues.

8:25
Procedure starts. Mom and dad waiting…….

9:03
Procedure done. Out of the OR, waiting for them to call us back.

10:15
Andrew is waking up and is eating a Popsicle. Nurse informed us that we will be here until 1:00.

10:30
Ice cream + Rango on the TV. Recovery is going well. He’s definitely a trooper. Nurse is great, chit chatting about Alaska. For the record, she brought it up first….

12:50
Given the okay to head home.  Andrew immediately sits up and tries to “help” take out the I.V. and pulse monitor.  I think he is looking forward to going home.

1:00
Time for a ride in the wheelchair.  Feeling a bit dizzy from the medication and laying down all morning, he has a choice to be carried by dad or wheeled in the wheel chair.  He hesitates but chooses the wheelchair.  Dad is happy with that decision.

1:20
Home sweet home!  Thanks for the well wishes, time to recover.

Puzzled

Grandma Yuki introduced the boys to the amazing world of puzzles.  They enjoy putting puzzles together and the last few times they were at Grandma’s, they took a special trip to the store to pick some up.  They went to a thrift store and found some used puzzles for fairly cheap.  The puzzles still had the original price tags . . . from Kmart, Kohl’s, etc.

The other day we were running around and had to exchange some items at Kohl’s.  The idea was to get in and out and not spend too much time, or hopefully money.  As we pulled into the parking lot, both Ben and Andrew got excited and screamed out “Kohl’s!  We can pick up some puzzles!’

Since we were on a time crunch, Mom politely said, “Um, probably not.”

Benjamin’s response . . .  ”Did you hear that Andrew, she said ‘Probably’.  That’s good, right?”

That made us smile.  Based off that response, we were going to let them pick up a puzzle or two.  Too bad they didn’t have any in stock

Kindergarten Spelling Bee

The great thing about Kindergarten is the innocence and honesty of learning at that age.  From the drawings, imaginations and their spelling.  At that age you can almost see the world through their eyes by the drawings they bring home from School and the many other small projects and assignments.

This year, the Kindergarten class at Pinewood Elementary worked on a book called “All About Me” where the kids in the class wrote a little something about themselves.

Here is the challenge . . . Write down how you think the following words would be spelled by a Kindergartner and then check your answers with the link below.  Remember . . . throw out all the rules of spelling and spell it exactly how it sounds . . . have fun!

1. Doctor
2. Noodles
3. Color
4. Brothers
5. Nurse
6. Scientist
7. Strudel
8. Purple
9. Pizza
10. Police Officer
11. Policeman
12. Car Racer

==> Check Your Answers <==

Write a comment and let us know how you did.

Kindergarten Dictionary

Did you take the challenge?

Here are the answers

1. DOCTOR – dockter
2. NOODLES – noodols
3. COLOR – cular
4. BROTHERS – bruthars or bruthers
5. NURSE – ners
6. SCIENTIST – sintist or sientest
7. STRUDEL – strodl
8. PURPLE – prplp or perpal
9. PIZZA – peesa
10. POLICE OFFICER – pels ofisr
11. POLICEMAN – poleesman
12. CAR RACER – car wrcer

Here is Andrew’s entry for the “All About Me” book:

We are trying to keep up with the creative writing skills through the summer so we are having the boys keep a Summer Journal.  For Andrew, the spelling is less important than the writing itself.  He is so proud of his journal entries and we are proud parents when we see the joy on his face when telling us about what he wrote.

Benjamin is also enjoying the Summer Journals along with doing a Summer Reading Log.  They get to pick out a new Lego after X number of minutes read . . . I’ve never seen a boy so excited to read .

Allergies and MORE

As we transitioned from Spring into Summer, we noticed the boys were sniffling a lot more and were having nose bleeds more often than normal.  We decided to make an appointment and see if we can some allergy medicine prescribed for them both.  The appointment was during the day so Mom had to pick them up from day care to take them for their appointment.  They ended up going home with Mom after their appointment.  Since Auntie Leslie is our day care provider, she was well aware of the allergies the boys were having and of their upcoming appointment.

When Dad dropped them off the next morning, the concerned Auntie wanted to see how things went:

Oh, did I mention that they had a full examination?  I quickly explained this to Auntie to break up the awkwardness

I wasn’t surprised at this answer based off of Judy’s story of the appointment . . .

After sitting in the waiting room for over an hour, the boys finally got a chance to go back to the examination room.  Since it was  a full checkup, their heights were measured and weights taken.  The exam consisted of the usual, heart, pulse, lungs, reflexes, etc . . .

Once the preliminary checks were done the doctor looked at Ben and said, go ahead and take off your pants.  Ben immediately looked at Mom with confusion.  Mom reassured him that it was okay and as he began to take of his pants, Mom further explained . . . “she just needs to examine your privates”.  This was followed by a wide-eyed Benjamin taking a double take at Mom and the Doctor.

When it was all said and done, Judy and the boys walked out of the Clinic with a prescription for allergies that we were looking for and an unexpected experience for the boys.

Even though the boys shared this story with Dad when he got home, Dad was not expecting them to share this story with Auntie when asked about their allergy appointment.  Here is to an allergy symptom-free summer!