Love, Love, Love

Last month, I decided to add a "Quote of the Month" on here. So, in my search for a quote to go on here for the month of February, I decided to Google "Love Quotes." I pulled up 2,150,000,000 results! So, I Googled love songs, because let's face it, some of the best quotes out there about love are found in songs. According to http://www.lyricsplanet.com/ there are 3,419 songs with the word “love” in the title.

All You Need Is Love... Love Makes the World Go Round... Love Is A Many Splendored Thing... The Greatest Love Of All... Can't Buy Me Love... It's Only Love... Love Me Do... Love Me Tender... I Just Called To Say I Love You... Can You Feel the Love Tonight... How Deep Is Your Love... P.S. I Love You... Real Love... My Love... I Want To Know What Love Is... How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You... Sea Of Love... This One Goes Out To the One I Love... Don't You Want Somebody To Love... To Know Her Is To Love Her... To All the Girls I've Loved Before... To Sir, With Love... You've Got To Hide Your Love Away... Calling Dr. Love... Let Love Rule... My Endless Love... I Can't Help Falling In Love With You... Freeway Of Love... Crazy Little Thing Called Love... Lost In Love... Jesus Loves Me... Have I Told You Lately That I Love You... With Love... Without Love... In And Out Of Love... You Look So Good In Love... When I Fall In Love, It Will Be Forever... If I Fell In Love With You... Love Of My Life... I Love the Way You Love Me... Baby, I Love Your Way... Woke Up In Love This Morning... I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song... I'm the Man Who Loves You... In the Name Of Love... Say You Love Me... Is This Love... Is That the Way Love Goes... Isn't She Lovely... Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me... No Greater Love Than This... Love Is A Battlefield... Love Is A Beautiful Thing... Love Is Blind... Love Is Here To Stay... Love Walks In... Love On the Rocks... Love Potion Number Nine... Love To Love You, Baby... Love Will Find A Way... Love Will Keep Us Together... Love Without End, Amen...

I won't name all 3,419 songs. And still, one could even argue that the best love songs of all times don't even have the word love in the title. Songs like Always and Forever, Ribbon in the Sky, Betcha By Golly Wow, We've Only Just Begun, In Your Eyes, Just the Way You Are, Maybe I'm Amazed, Could I Have This Dance, Danny's Song, In My Life, Something, You're Still the One, Annie's Song, and You Are So Beautiful immediately come to mind. All of these songs have memorable lines and familiar lyrics that I could have quoted on here, but none of them seemed to fill my need as the perfect quote.

I'm sure that Hector is like a lot of men out there. He doesn't really see the need for Valentine's Day. He thinks the holiday was made up by people working in the candy, floral and greeting card businesses, as a way to make more money in between Christmas and Easter. And he might just have a valid point. In an article entitled "The Not-so-mushy Statistics of Valentine's Day" Neoli Marcos writes:

"Valentine's Day has often been criticised as just an excuse for consumerism, an opportunity for businesses. Consequently, the well-meaning tradition of sending Valentine cards has also been unfairly stained by cynics everywhere, as if it is Hallmark's fault that people are only sending cards perfunctorily, without thought at all, but just to get over the holiday. Indeed, Valentine's Day is the second largest card-exchanging holiday next to Christmas, making Hallmark the unmistakable industry leader. Half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine’s Day by purchasing at least one greeting card, according to Hallmark. And last year, according to an MSNBC report, Americans spent as much as $13.7 billion last Valentine's Day, up 22 percent from just five years ago."

I am a romantic, though. So, I feel the need to set Hector (and everyone else like him) straight. Here's the real reason we celebrate Valentine's Day. During the third century, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius II. It would seem that Claudius was having trouble getting men to serve in his army. He felt men were not volunteering to join because they did not want to leave their wives and families behind. He thought that if men were not married, they would join the army. So Claudius passed a new law which did not allow any more marriages. Now at this same time there was a young minister named Valentine, who did not support the new law. And even after Emperor Claudius passed the law, Valentine kept performing marriage ceremonies secretly. One night he was caught, and thrown in jail. Many young people came to visit Valentine. One of them was the daughter of the prison guard. Soon the two fell in love. When the prison guard found out, he ordered Valentine to be put to death. On the day of his death, Valentine wrote a note to the prison guard's daughter, signing it, "To My Beloved, From Your Valentine." The date was February 14, 269 A. D. And that is why February 14 is celebrated as Valentine's Day.

I honestly can't remember the first time Hector told me that he loved me. But I can remember the first time he wrote it to me in a letter, because I still have the first love letter he gave to me. Yes indeed, I am a sentimental fool. :-) What can I say? When it's true love, you just know it... I pulled the letter out from it's hiding place just the other day. In that love letter, Hector wrote, "With each passing day, I find myself falling deeper in love with you. We are so different, in so many ways. But our love for each other continues to grow stronger. I love you with all my heart."

I'm getting all teary-eyed just typing those words here, because of the way Hector's written words made me feel at the time he wrote that letter to me some 21 years ago. So, in my search for a quote to go on here this month, as I was trying to sort through the 2 billion quotes about love that Google pulled up, I was considering putting another quote on here until I stumbled across this quote from Helen Keller that seemed to fit the bill of the perfect quote.

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."

It's true - I don't need a letter or any other gift from Hector on Valentine's Day to know that he loves me, because I feel it in my heart each and every day. It's something I have felt since the very beginning of our relationship. Still, even if it's just one day a year, it sure is nice to be given a gift... something that can be seen and touched... something that serves as an external token of affection for an internal emotion... love, love, love!

Happy Valentine's Day, with love, from The 5 Aces.

Cookies Anyone?

Avery is still selling Girl Scout cookies. If you want to add more to an order you've already placed, or if you haven't placed an order yet and want to, please let us know ASAP. The last day to place an order is this coming Saturday, the 31st. They are $3.50 a box. You can pay when they come in, around mid-February. Available flavors are:

Trefoils (shortbread)

Thin Mints

Lemon Cremes

Samoas

Tagalongs

Do-si-dos

Dulce de Leche (sweet cream cookie with caramel chips and caramel stripes)

Sugar Free Chocolate Chip

Don't Forget the Lyrics

Have you ever wondered what the REAL lyrics are to songs like Frère Jacques or John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt? Well, wonder no more! Here's a wonderful website that gives you access to the lyrics of hundreds of classic children's songs. Enjoy!

http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/allsongs.html

Update on Avery

Avery had a follow-up appointment today with the ENT. He showed me the tubes in her ears, and they did not have any fluid in them. He said that it looks like she has heeled perfectly. The audiologist did another hearing screening on Avery. She displayed no hearing loss this time, which is a huge praise! Before her surgery she was displaying a 25% - 35% hearing loss. It is simply amazing for me to think about the fact that 2 tiny pieces of plastic being inserted into Avery's ears, and 2 tiny folds of tissue being removed has produced such dramatic and impressive results. We are thrilled that the surgery was a success and that Avery did not have any permanent hearing loss.

One more thing... This is Avery's favorite outfit. Hector thinks it does not match, but Avery and I know better. What you can't see is that under her pink poodle vest, the shirt has flowers on it that match the flowers on the pants. See Hector, it does so match! :-) And the flowers are daisies, which are now Avery's favorite flower. Avery would like to thank all of the generous people in her life who made this outfit possible... To Landon Wilson, who refused to wear this outfit herself even though her mother bought it for her, thus making her mother Amy give the brand new, with the tags still on it, very expensive boutique outfit to Avery, we say a great big "Thanks!" And to Avery's Aunt Donna, who saw the pink poodle vest in the store and knew instantly that Avery simply needed to have it, we say to you "We greatly appreciate your keen eye and fashion-forward thinking, as well as your knowledge of the fact that Avery loves all things soft and pink." To Avery's Nana, who listened to Donna and purchased the pink poodle vest, making this outfit a truly magnificent work of art, we would like to say to you "This outfit would not have been possible without you." And finally to God, we say "Thank you for bestowing upon Avery the gift of a truly unique sense of style, a style that's all her own." Thank you all, and good night...

In Other News...

Isaac had his 2 year well child check-up this morning. He did great! The doctor was pleased with his vocabulary and overall development. He weighed 25 pounds and finally moved up from the 2nd - 5th percentile to the 24th percentile! Woo Hoo! He was 34" tall (or 34 inches short, as we like to say around here). Here's how all 3 kids compare to each other, when they were all 2 years old.

Samuel: 27 lbs., 37"
Avery: 28 lbs., 36 1/2"
Isaac: 25 lbs., 34"

I think it's official... Isaac got the recessive "short" gene! He got 2 shots today, as well as a flu shot. He didn't cry at all! Unbelievable! He also had an allergy test done which meant he had blood taken (I'll talk about this more a little later), but still no tears were shed by Isaac. The nurses were amazed. I think orange lollipops are the way to go from now on with Isaac. He just sat there the entire time, sucking away on that lollipop, acting like those nurses weren't sticking him with needles. He got down from the examining table and started dancing and singing "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety dog." It's from The Mickey Mouse Club House, by the way... Crazy kid!

Samuel and Avery on the other hand, from the minute I told them that they were getting flu shots, both started crying. There's my 2 year old, after getting 3 shots and blood drawn, dancing and singing and not crying at all. But my 7 and 5 year olds were sobbing like babies at the mere mention of getting 1 shot! :-) I wasn't planning on getting flu shots for them this year. It just so happened that they had the day off from school for MLK day, so they came along for Isaac's appointment. Since Isaac was getting a flu shot, the doctor suggested Samuel and Avery get one too. And I decided to go for it, since it wasn't going to cost me anything extra. :-) Samuel got his shot first. Remember, he was already sobbing before he even had to climb up on the examining table. When the nurse went to give him the shot, Samuel flinched, and she pulled the needle back. She hadn't even put the needle in his arm, but he began screaming at her. I was so embarrassed. She called in another nurse to hold his arms down, which made things a whole lot worse in Avery's mind. Avery started screaming, so I started yelling at her "You're not even the one getting the shot! Calm down!" The nurse gave Samuel the shot and he looked at her and said "You shot me in the finger. It hurts really bad." I tried very hard not to laugh, because his comment made no sense. But then I saw that the needle was stuck in Samuel's finger!!! I guess when the nurse went to set it down on the table, Samuel raised his hand up at the same time and the needle met his finger. Oh my goodness! Blood was shooting everywhere. Could it have gotten any worse? Why yes it could, and it did, because it was Avery's turn. This poor child was SCREAMING... And nothing I said would make her quiet down. She got the shot (no fingers got shot this time), and when the nurse pulled away, Avery said in a calm voice "That wasn't so bad." To which I responded "Well I'm so glad it wasn't that bad for you, because Nurse Reana and I are now deaf and everyone within a mile of us knows exactly how you feel about getting the flu shot."

Okay, so even though Samuel got shot in his finger, he still managed to play his Nintendo DS (it's like a Game Boy) on the way home in the car. And, he finally defeated Ti Lung on his Kung Fu game. He was SOOOO proud of himself. He's been trying since Christmas, which is when he got the game. He told me that he can't wait to tell his Daddy tonight when he gets home from work!

Miss Avery Grace goes on Thursday for her follow up appointment with the ENT. She seems to be doing well and feeling great since her surgery. We are hopeful that her hearing screening will come back showing a big improvement.

And as for Isaac having blood taken today, our doctor strongly feels like we should not subject Isaac to a skin-prick allergy test. And here's why... Isaac is little, and young. Even if we did get answers from the test, our doctor does not believe it is worth putting Isaac through the pain at such a young age since 1) We already seem to have a good idea of what he's allergic to, 2) He's never had an allergic reaction that warranted us doing anything more than giving him Benadryl or rubbing cortisone cream on him, and 3) Every time we have needed to give him Benadryl, the allergic reaction has always stopped. So, the doctor had blood drawn from Isaac instead of referring him to an allergist, to test for the "high offenders" again (peanuts, dairy, etc.), and he is also going to test for a latex/plastic allergy. We should have those results back within a week.

Isaac's First...

...Haircut!!!

After about the hundredth person commented on what a beautiful daughter I had, while referring to Isaac, I finally caved-in to societal pressures and took my SON to get his first professional haircut. I told the lady that I did not want much taken off the length. I just wanted her to even it out because I wanted to keep his curls. She told me that she would need to take a little more off the ends than I wanted in order to even it out, but that she'd leave the top and sides long. She told me that if she cut it shorter on the ends, it would really lighten up the weight of his hair and make his curls pop out more. I reluctantly agreed.

Isaac did great. He sat on my lap and sucked on a tangerine lollipop the entire time. When she was done, I turned Isaac around and realized that she'd cut off all of his curls. She looked at me and said "Don't you start crying, because that will make him start crying." I told her "But you cut off all of his curls" as my voice started to crack. I held it together though. It is after all, just hair... I know it will grow back. Who thought I'd ever get so teary-eyed over a few curls? But it just makes him look like an entirely different kid. When we got home, Hector said "His hair wasn't even this short at birth. But he's still the cutest Bubba out there, and he's even cuter now than he was before."

BEFORE...

DURING...

AFTER...

Oh wait! That's not Isaac...

When did bowling get so expensive?

Seriously! When did this happen? We wanted to take the kids bowling, since they've never been before. We thought it would be a fun way to celebrate Isaac's birthday, especially since the kids have asked us several times to take them. I called several bowling alleys to check on prices. It was going to cost us $10/person for 1 game of bowling ($40 for 1 game). So, in true "The 5 Aces" style, we took a vote.

"Okay kids, listen up! We're going to take a vote. We can either go bowling, play one game and then come home, or we can go to Peter Piper Pizza, eat pizza, play games, and stay as long as we want. So, if you want to go bowling, raise your hand." Isaac was the only one who raised his hand. "Okay, if you want to go to Peter Piper Pizza, raise your hand." Everyone (including Isaac again) raised their hands.

We spent the afternoon eating enough pizza and salad to make us all quite full. We also got 40 tokens for the kids, which they played games with and won tons of tickets. With those tickets they all got a toy "prize" from the ticket redemption counter. The people sitting at the table next to us (whom we recognized from the kid's school) were having a birthday party there, and offered us some of their cake, as well as some party hats for the kids. Isn't that funny? And we got all of that for $36!

You Say It's Your Birthday...

Well, the big day is here... Isaac is 2! I was feeling a little extra creative this year, so I decided to make his birthday cake myself. My mom sent me a picture of a really cute cake made out of Teddy Graham crackers, swimming in a pool. The top of the cake gets cut out and you pour blue jello in the top to make it look like a pool. I bought all of the ingredients, and started to make the cake, when someone (who shall remain nameless) told me that it's winter time, and it didn't make sense for me to make a summer time cake. It was a good point, I have to admit... But since I already had all of the ingredients for the swimming pool cake, I went with an alternate plan... Polar bears doing a little ice fishing!

Isaac really liked his cake!

Blowing out the candle...

The cake had an igloo, camp fire, welcome mat, kids playing ball, and fish swimming under the ice. Avery put all those fish on by herself. Hector made the camp fire and fishing pole!

It's only 7 miles to Samville, 5 miles to Avery Town and 2 miles to Isaac Island...

And there's Daddy bear doing a little ice fishing.

Okay, so it's not a work of art, but I'm proud of it. Happy Birthday to our little man!

Hip Hip Hurray And Woop De Doo! Look Who's Turning The Great Big 2!

January 16, 2007: It was cold outside, and the weather was getting colder by the minute. I'd taken Samuel and Avery to preschool that morning, and then met Hector at one of the elementary schools we'd planned on touring that morning. We toured the first school and drove to the second school. After that tour, we made our decision... we liked the first school much better, and decided that it was the best school to send Samuel to for Kindergarten the next school year. I'd been feeling a bit uncomfortable, but figured it was due to all that walking, and the fact that I was 37 weeks pregnant with my 3rd child.

Hector and I enjoyed a nice lunch together. We were waiting for the check when I told Hector that I felt like my food had not settled properly. I was having very bad indigestion, and I just felt sick to my stomach. And then, Hector's phone beeped. It was around noon, and he picked it up and looked at the text message he'd just received. His sister, Amy, had just given birth to a baby girl. Her name was Amarie Belle, and she was beautiful! She weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Hector and I sat there, with tears in our eyes. We were so happy! We held hands and Hector said "That will be us in a week!" As we left the restaurant and said our goodbyes, Hector told me that he would see me after work around the normal time, 6:00.

By around 2:00 that afternoon, my lunch was really not settling well at all. My stomach hurt! The weather outside was getting really bad, and a major ice storm was blowing in. So, I left to pick up Samuel and Avery from preschool. When I got to the school, I was in so much pain that I had to lean over the desk to sign them out. I promised myself right then and there that I was never eating at Chili's ever again! When we got back home I told the kids that I really needed to lay down on the couch. Of course, Samuel said okay and ran to his room to watch cartoons. But Avery, my little caretaker, stayed with me. She was concerned about me, and had several questions she needed to ask. "Where does it hurt, Mommy?" "What does it feel like, Mommy?" "Why does the pain come and go, Mommy?"

Just like clockwork, every 4 minutes the pain would come, roll down my abdomen, and then subside for another 4 minutes. I jumped up and told Avery to go potty and get her shoes on, and to go tell Samuel to do the same thing. I grabbed the phone, and called Hector. It was 4:00 and I told him that I thought I was having contractions, but I wasn't 100% sure (I was still in denial!). He left work and I tried to straighten up the house. Honestly, the thought of dozens of people all converging on my horribly messy house within the next few days, well, it bothered me. And for some really strange reason, cleaning the toilet seemed like the best thing to do at that moment. As I bent down over the toilet to scrub it, I felt something. It was like a huge balloon was floating up inside of me. And then, it burst! It was a water balloon, and it broke, all over the bathroom floor...

Needless to say, panic set in. I would like to add here that my previous statement is quite possibly the biggest understatement of the year. I was in total freak-out, melt-down mode! I called Hector and before he even answered the phone I was crying and yelling, "Get home, NOW!!!!!" The only problem was that traffic was a mess. That ice storm had blown in, and it was rush hour traffic. I tried to calm myself down. It really didn't work. I tried to pack. That really wasn't happening either. Every 2 - 3 minutes, another contraction would hit, and more fluid would spill out onto the floor. Ah, it's such a lovely thought, isn't it? So, I did what any other woman in the same situation would do, I called my Mommy! I don't think she could understand a word I was saying, but she did her best to reassure me that Hector would be home soon and that we'd all be fine. She talked me through what I needed to pack for the kids. She talked me through what I needed to pack for myself. She asked me why I hadn't done any packing ahead of time....

You see, I had a c-section planned for the next week, so there was no need to have any of that done ahead of time. I wasn't supposed to be in labor. I had not gone into labor naturally with Samuel or Avery. But there I was, 37 weeks pregnant with my 3rd child, in labor!

We dropped Samuel and Avery off at the home of our wonderful friends, Mandy and Kasey. That was quite possibly the hardest good bye I've ever said to my kids. It was painful for me to let go of them. The drive to the hospital was exciting, to say the least! The contractions were coming every 2 minutes, and all I could think to pray was "Dear Lord, please don't let me be one of those women you hear about on the news who had her baby in the middle of an ice storm, on the side of the road." As we sat at a red light, Hector thought it was a good time to ask me for directions to the hospital. I won't tell you all what my response was! By the time we got to the hospital, it was 6:30 p.m. And by the way, no one in the hospital seemed to care that I was hunched over the desk, with amniotic fluid coming down my legs, red faced, tears streaming down my face. Nope, I guess they see that sort of thing all the time because not one of them got up to offer me some help. Must be old hat for them. Not so much for me! I wanted immediate attention. Get up, people! Now! I finally got into a room and they called the anesthesiologist. Under any other set of circumstances, I'm sure that I would have thoroughly liked this man. But given the situation at hand, the fact that all he seemed to want to do was chat with Hector about a Chinese food restaurant they both enjoyed dining at, instead of trying to find a vein and start my pain medication, really made me dislike the man at that moment. Throughout this time, the nurse kept trying to find the baby's heartbeat. She would tell me to keep still, but by then the contractions were coming every 30 seconds. Literally, every 30 seconds for over 30 minutes, I would have another contraction and move my body in response to the pain, and the nurse could not find the baby's heartbeat. Finally, I could not take it anymore. I asked the nurse why she couldn't find the heartbeat, to which she replied "I could find the heartbeat if you would stop moving!" I turned my head away from the nurse towards Hector, and with tears flooding my eyes I reached my hand out to him. He grabbed my hand and looked deep into my eyes, and without having to say a word, he knew. He told the nurse to go get the doctor. She snapped back at him that she could do it herself (honestly, she was not nice!). And Hector said "You need to go get the doctor now, or I'll do it." The nurse left the room and Hector and I didn't say a word to each other. We were both too scared to talk about what we were both thinking and fearing. But after a few minutes, my doctor came in, at around 8:50. He checked me for dilation, and said that I was at 1 centimeter - 1 centimeter, that's it... after 9 hours of contractions and 5 hours after my water had broke... Any and all hope of actually having a VBAC birth were immediately thrown out the window. Who was I trying to fool, anyway? This was me we were talking about. The woman who was told by her doctor when she went past her due date with her first child that if she could be dilated to a negative 1 centimeter, that's what I was! Anyway, the doctor gave the anesthesiologist the okay to give me the epidural. I relaxed, and my doctor found the baby's heartbeat. It was nice and strong!

As I was laying there waiting to meet my baby, all I could think of was how blessed I was. I had a great husband by my side, and I was about to meet my 3rd child!!! WOW! And then, I felt the doctor pull my baby from me, and he shouted "It's a boy!" On the video footage, at that very moment Isaac came into the world and into our lives, the doctor held him up over the curtain so that I could see him. And the sound of pure love and happiness that I let out at that moment, seeing my beautiful baby for the first time, well I still burst into tears every time I see it and hear it!

At 9:50 p.m., Isaac (meaning laughter) Elan (meaning friendly) came into our lives, weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Which was exactly the same weight as his cousin, Amarie Belle, who had been born just 10 hours earlier on the same day!

It's amazing to think about how quickly the first year of his life went by, as well as everything Isaac accomplished.

The day we found out we were expecting a 3rd child, we both laughed so hard that we cried. We laughed and we laughed some more until the tears started flowing, because we were so happy at what God had given us. Despite being told just a few years prior to that time that we would never conceive a child of our own, there we were, laughing at that bright blue plus sign on the home pregnancy test! Isaac Elan, our most precious gift of laughter, truly has brought us laughter from the very moment we found out we were expecting him. He has made our family complete.

And now, he's turning 2! And he's still making us laugh... Time really does fly when you're having fun!!! Happy Birthday, Bubba! We love you so much.

Thanks be to God, for "He has given us laughter." Genesis 21:6

Stuff

Last night for homework, Amanda was supposed to answer 10 questions on a worksheet and then write a paragraph about 1 of 3 Indian tribes she's been learning about in school, giving specific examples of their homes, farming, and trading practices. After a couple of minutes, she announced to me that she was done and went to play with Avery. I suspected something was not right, so I pulled out her binder and looked over the worksheet. Every answer looked wrong. But when I got down to her paragraph, I literally gasped. This is what she wrote:

"They lived in things made of stuff. The growed other stuff and the stuff they could not growed they traded for other stuffs."

This is the part of tutoring Amanda that just floors me! I called her back into the dining room and sat down with her at the table, and made her go over the entire worksheet again. She had originally missed 9 out of 10 questions, and written that horrible paragraph. After I sat down with her, she got all of the questions right and she wrote a much better paragraph. I just hate it when she does stuff like that! :-)

One of these things is not like the other things.

Last night, I was cooking dinner while Avery was looking through all of the Christmas cards we received. She came to a card and began reading it aloud, "Merry Christmas 2008, From Chris, Abbey, Carter, Camryn and Collin." And before I could say anything to her, Avery started singing, "One of these things is not like the other things. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others, by the time I finish my song?" And then she shouted "It's Mrs. Abbey! She doesn't belong because her name starts with an A!"

So, now it's your turn. One of these things is not like the other things. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others, by the time I finish this blog?
Hint: 2/3 of this group got something chopped off... :-)

What?

This morning, Avery had her adenoids removed and tubes put in her ears. We left the house at 5:15 a.m., arrived at the hospital by 6:00, and then we got put in a tiny room where we waited and waited and waited. Her surgery started at 7:30 and the doctor came out to talk to us in the waiting room at 7:50. He told us that she had a lot of bacteria in her ear canals and that her adenoids were much more swollen than he'd anticipated. But everything went smoothly and Avery was so brave! She asked tons of questions and all of the nurses grew very fond of her inquisitive personality. The anesthesiologist even let Avery bring home the pink oxygen mask that was used during her surgery. She fell asleep in the car on the way home, but once we pulled up to the house she woke up and asked "What's for breakfast?" That's my girl! :-) Avery promptly sat down to the table and ate 4 popsicles, 8 donut holes, 1 glazed donut, a piece of bread, a cheese stick, a few bites of a bean burrito, and 2 more popsicles. Seriously, you would think she hadn't eaten for days... She took about a 2 hour nap and is now reading books with Isaac, and she seems to be feeling just fine. And Hector noted that she hasn't asked "What?" for us to repeat ourselves even once since the surgery.