Do You Hear What I Hear?

Ear infections are as common in our household as eating breakfast, messy play rooms, and sibling spats. Priya and Deven have grown up having multiple ear infections a year...Trevor has escaped the frequency but not the occurrence altogether. So, when our doc recommended a second set of tubes for Deven after having 3 infections in 2 months, we were not surprised and actually a little relieved. The chronic fluid build-up in Deven's ears were causing repeated "What, Mommy?" responses that made me question how much hearing loss he was experiencing.

Friday we got Deven out of OUR bed (where he ends up each morning...joining us faithfully around 3am) at 4am so that we could drive to the surgery center to "get his ears fixed." He was also having his adenoids removed which has proven to be more effective than merely another tube placement.

It broke my heart to wake up this sleeping angel.

Father and son...Deven was fine with getting his ears fixed as long as his pillow and new dino backpack could accompany him.

Deven walked into the surgery center waiting room and planted himself just like this. Couldn't even be bothered to take off his backpack.

Cuddling in the waiting room. Could've fallen fast asleep right there on the waiting room sofa.

Deven only started to get feisty when we asked him to put on the hospital gown...but, I mean, wouldn't you, too? Not exactly stylish duds...the nurse brought him a surprise--a plastic dinosaur (shown in his toes)--not even knowing how IN to dinos Deven is right now. It was a good bargaining tool. "Deven, we need to give your dino back if you don't put our gown on..." He fought the gown less when the nurse gave him the "happy" juice...although it had the reverse effect on Deven...making him kinda grumpy.

Not exactly a flattering shot of me, but any mother who has held their child like this, no matter what the age, can identify with how much my heart was swelling with love. Deven doesn't sit very still anymore at the ripe old age of 4 1/2, so I was savoring this moment...even though he was in a drug-induced state.

It was kind of funny to watch Deven eat the popsicle...he was still out of it and very sleepy, and with each attempt to put the popsicle in his mouth, he would miss and swipe his cheek. Mommy helped guide it a bit.

We are praying that this surgery minimizes any chance of more ear infections for our baby Deven (a nickname given to him when he was born but has now stuck). As of this morning he is still suffering from side effects (feeling stuffed up, headache, throat sore from the breathing tube during surgery). Hopefully, he'll be back to his jokester self soon. Although we're certainly not lacking entertainment in our household with Trevor around.