Surgery

Over Christmas break we noticed we were having to practically yell at Dekan just to get his attention. We thought he was just distracted by the new toys at Christmas, so we did not do much about it. A couple of weeks after he returned to school we received a report card that indicated he was doing worse at being creative and getting his work done on time. He is usually very attentive, so I started wondering if something was wrong. We started doing some home hearing tests on him, but I really thought it was just a guy thing that he wasn't listening to me. (or maybe I'm just boring . . . hmm) As I talked to one of his teachers, she said that would explain a lot of what was going on in the classroom, because he is so shy and doesn't want to disappoint anyone so he wouldn't say anything. So, we had the school nurse test his hearing and he failed in both ears. That same day, we took him to the pediatrician who performed two different tests in both ears and he was not even registering in either ear. They scheduled us an appointment with an ENT two days later and they told us he needed to have a little surgery to clear his ears of the hard gunk in there and put tubes in his ears. He had lost 30 decibalsWe did this last Monday and the procedure only took about 5 minutes, but of course we had to go 1 1/2 hours early and it took him an hour to wake up before we could go.

First, they gave him some loopy medicine and while I was in the spot that Dave is in this picture, one of the first things he said to me was, "Mom, you are too heavy." What could I say? I had to agree. The medicine really just loosed his tongue. I wonder what Dave would say on that medicine? Dekan also looked at a picture of a monkey and said, "Hey, it's Camden."
Afterwards, there were several bouts of crying for no reason, which the nurse explained would happen due to the mixture of certain drugs. By the time we got home, he was fine and running around like nothing had happened.
The best part about it all? We just switched to a high-deductible plan Jan. 1st, so we got to pay for the entire thing out-of-pocket. He was such a brave boy!

Wow! More than two months of non-updates!

Okay, so with all my spare time (note the sarcasm) I've neglected the blog. I am almost finished with school, so I should get my life back very soon. Here is the last two months in a nutshell.

I had a birthday and all the boys in my life (Dekan, Chandler, Camden, and Dave) gave me a gift certificate to get a pedicure for working hard on my feet all the time for them.

Camden started eating in his high chair that I bought at a garage sale for $15! It's awesome!
and he became an expert at cruising

We bought some fun things to get ready for Christmas

Chandler had a Thanksgiving program at his pre-school

Camden learned how to ride (be pushed) on Mater

Then, was Dave's birthday - and he was such a sport - we went to Build-A-Bear for the boysWe saw Santa Claus

and played at the mall (all on Dave's birthday)

and he received "old man chocolates"

Then came Thanksgiving when we go out to Jack-in-the-box for breakfast every year - tradition!

Every Monday after Thanksgiving we set up our tree and get ready for Christmas and the boys get to open up their ornaments from grandma every year

We went to Cici's and bought a couple balloons from a guy there that was making them. I thought he did a pretty great job.

Then, Chandler had a Christmas pajama program

We went to our favorite place. My boys call it the hot sauce place, but they changed it up on us and it is now the "Looney Toons" place.

I was too busy taking finals right before Christmas so we didn't take goodies to anybody. But, on Christmas Eve when all my tests were done, we made and decorated cookies.

Of course, Camden's favorite time . . .

On Christmas Eve, every year we go over to Dave's brother's (and family) house for a re-enactment of the Christmas story. The three boys got to be wise men this year.

And then we all get a new pair of PJ's from our awesome relatives

On Christmas Eve, we also let the boys open one present before going to bed. This is usually the gift they bought for each other - we drew names. That Camden would not leave his Santa hat on so this is as close as we were able to get to taking a good picture.

On Christmas Eve we always go buy donuts at a local donut shop so that we can eat them for breakfast on Christmas morning.

This is Christmas morning as well - can't you read the excitement on their faces?

We got the ever-coveted Wii for Christmas from Santa this year, but it wasn't opened until the very end, so just before opening it, Dekan whispered to Dave that he must not have been very good this year because we didn't get a Wii - this was the only thing he asked Santa for.

Did I mention we had a white Christmas? The last time that happened in our area was in the 1920s!!

A few days later, after all the snow was melted, we received another snow storm!! It was gone before the sun came up the next day, but we still had a chance to play.

On New Year's Day we went bowling with the boys' cousins.

Another favorite activity of Camdens

And we can't leave out his first birthday! Dekan and Chandler did not give me the messy birthday, so we decided to opt for banana cream pie in hopes of a better mess - we were not disappointed!

He had so much fun with his little pie, that I gave him a whole pie.

I told you we weren't disappointed.

After a quick bath, it was present time

Lastly, we have just a couple fun photos since Cam's b-day.