Addison’s First Surgical Procedure

After a very busy weekend, we had a very early start today. We dropped off Emerson earlier than we ever have before, just a few minutes before 7am. I was worried she would be upset with our normal routine thrown off and without Addison, but she was perfectly fine!

And then Jeff and I took Addison to the Red Hills Surgical Center for her first little surgical procedure – to get tubes put in her little ears. Since she had so many ear infections in a row, she needed tubes put in, to hopefully help the whole situation, especially once next winter starts and it gets cold again.

We checked in right at 7:15am, we went back around 7:30, and the anesthesiologist came to get her a few minutes past 8am. Honestly, I didn’t feel a lick of anxiety this morning, which of course was due in large part to trusting the Lord would keep her safe in the doctors’ care. But another large part of it was due to having already gone through much harder situations. Once you send your 3-year-old off into the hospital with her daddy (without me! thanks to covid regulations) for open-heart surgery, almost everything else feels like a cake walk!

After just a short 20 minutes, they called us back to come talk to the doctor, before being taken to see her in recovery. The doctor said her ears were in fact very icky, and she definitely needed the tubes, especially since she was actually at the start of an ear infection this morning. She was very upset and disoriented coming off the meds, but once we got her some milk (she was also starving!), she calmed down, and we were able to get her changed back into her jammies and then she fell asleep.

She fell asleep in the car on the way home as always, and then she proceeded to sleep for another two hours once we got home. While she napped, Jeff went to get the oil changed in my car, and I worked on all the Disney catch-up blog posts. (See them all here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.) When she finally woke up again around 11:30, she was very hungry again and definitely read for another bottle of milk, before we had some play time together.

We had a light, late lunch together today, hash brown & chicken nugget for her (leftover from the weekend), and a quick Asian salad and leftover egg roll for me.

Addie took another little nap after lunch, and I tried to nap on the couch (but naps are strangely hard for me sometimes, and I didn’t nap well), but eventually, we both got up, and headed to pick up big sister. Megan and I coordinated our pickup times today, and that was lots of fun.

On the way home, the girls and I went by Walmart to pick up our groceries, and fill-up my gas tank. Then while I cooked dinner, Jeff and the girls played out in the front yard, and went on a short little walk as well. I just love all these pictures of the girls playing together on this beautiful evening!

Back home, I was proud of myself for figuring out dinner, even when Walmart didn’t give me a few things I ordered. I basically made the infamous “TikTok feta pasta,” but with a few substitutions and additions of my own, and it came out soooo good. Super easy, super creamy, plus extra “hidden” veggies.

Sauté diced onions, add half a block of cream cheese, one block feta, one can of diced tomatoes, and I also added 2 diced Roma tomatoes I had leftover from last week. Then add a bunch of spices (I used S&P, onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, basil, oregano, thyme and just a tiny dash of red pepper flakes), allow everything to melt and simmer, and throw in a ton of fresh spinach leaves to wilt. Then add a bit of either mozzarella or parmesan, and 1 cup of reserved pasta water after draining your noodles, then mix in the noodles. Yum!

Clearly, one box of noodles goes a long way, so we still have plenty of leftovers, which I look forward to eating for lunch this week. I’m also going to share one of the dishes with Megan one day, so I hope she’ll enjoy this too. (Jeff liked it, but didn’t love it, and picked around most of the veggies, so I’m not letting him eat any of the leftovers 😉 )

We put these goofy girls in the crib together while Jeff got the bathtub ready and I put away the dinner leftovers, and I came back in to find them like this, just giggling and playing together so sweetly.

Emmie got to have a few minutes of tv time on the couch with me after her bath, and then we headed back to start the bedtime routine. This Ariel gown was bought for our Disney trip, and her little stuffed “Tuk Tuk” from Raya was her other souvenir choice from Disney, to go along with her baby Minnie Mouse.

Jeff got Addison to sleep after her nighttime bottle, while I was with Emerson…

But she only lasted about an hour in her crib before she woke up whining and starting to get upset. We had actually forgotten to do her antibiotic ear drops though, so it was just as well that we had to get her back up. So we got her up and changed her diaper and did her ear drops, then gave her another bottle, and Jeff has been rocking her back to sleep for a little bit now. Hopefully she can get some good rest and recover from her first surgical procedure today, and wake up back to normal tomorrow morning. Hoping Jeff and I can get some good reset tonight too, because we both need it!