First Surgery

Eli had surgery a couple of weeks ago to have ventilation tubes put in his ears. He's basically had fluid/infections going on since Christmas, so when they suggested tubes, I was all for it. This is the first surgery that either of our boys have had, and other than an after-hours visit for what turned out to be croup, we had never even taken our kiddos to the hospital.

Let me just say that Children's Hospital in Omaha is excellent. Everything from the phone calls to get medical history to the check-in process to the care Eli received was just great. Everyone was so nice and they went out of their way to make sure we were all comfortable and had everything we needed.

Micah spent the morning at a friend's house, and Josh and I both took Eli to the hospital. Our check-in time was 8 a.m., and poor Eli wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything all morning because he would be having general anesthesia and they don't want to risk him vomiting.

There was some concern about a fever that Eli had been running for a couple of days. We had a weird virus go through our house, first Josh, then Micah, and then Eli had fevers with really no other symptoms. We weren't sure that they would go through with the surgery, but we were told to show up and they'd make the decision once the anesthesiologist and the doctor checked him out. Luckily, they let us go ahead.

Since Eli was sick, they brought some toys to our room for him to play with, rather than letting him play in the playroom. He was so adorable in his little hospital gown with his diaper sticking out the back. :)

We waited and played, and eventually the nurses came to take him to the operating room. As I predicted, he pitched a fit when they took him away from me (the same fit he throws when I drop him off at the church nursery or even when I put him in his crib for the night). Then Josh and I waited and watched t.v.

It was only a ten-minute surgery, then they kept him in recovery for another half-hour or so. When they were bringing him back to our room, he was pretty mad. He was crying and babbling. The nurses said he was chewing them out, and I think they were right!

Once he saw me, he grabbed me and laid his head down on my shoulder. It took me a little while to get him calm, but eventually he settled down enough to drink some apple juice, which helped a ton. Then the nurse brought him some graham crackers and they were friends again.

At Children's, each kiddo is given a teddy bear that is next to them when they wake up from surgery. Eli has never been attached to any stuffed animals before, but he really loves that bear! He carries it around and hugs it, and he likes to sleep with it, too. So cute!

We had to put antibiotic drops in Eli's ears for three days, which was no fun because they stung his ears. Several times it took both of us holding him to get the drops in how they were supposed to be. But tubes are so worth it.

I think Eli hears a lot better now. He sure does jabber a lot more, and it seems like he's understanding us better and communicating to us better than he did before the surgery. I'm sure he feels better, too. And since we spent the first three months of this year visiting the doctor every two weeks trying different things to get rid of the fluid in his ears, it's definitely easier on our schedule to have the tubes in.

So there's the story of Eli's first surgery, and although it was a good experience, I hope he doesn't need any more. :)

Eli Dancing

In case you missed it on facebook....

Mississippi Trip

Here's the story of our trip to Mississippi in April.

My sister-in-law, Jenny, had a baby on March 25, while her husband (my brother, Kellen), was deployed in Djbouti, Africa. Her mom and two brothers were able to go stay with her for a couple of weeks, but of course Mom and Dad wanted to go see the baby and help out, too. They invited the boys and me to go along.

So on Friday, April 15th, we loaded up the van and drove through the night to Gulfport, Mississippi. It was 17 hours of driving, and the trip took us 20 hours total. The boys did great, and Grandma and Grandpa and I did pretty well, too.

We stayed for almost 10 days, and we packed a lot of fun things in! I was able to take the boys to attend the church of a friend who used to be a pastor at our church. He's now leading a church in Baton Rouge. It was great to catch up with their family.

We also went to the beach, had a picnic and played on the playground at Keesler Air Force Base, played in the backyard, read LOTS of books, attended an awesome re-creation of Passion Week events at Jenny's church, dyed Easter eggs and had many hunts for them, played in the sprinkler, ate at Chick Fil-A and Applebees, went to a splash pad, and went out for ice cream.

Oh, and we just enjoyed plenty of time at Jenny's house, holding Carter and watching Cady and Micah and Eli play. Cady and Micah played well together, but also did some bickering. At one point, they were arguing about whether Carter was Cady's brother or Micah's cousin. It turned into a "No, mine!" kind of fight, until Cady pointed to Carter and said, "Did this come out of YOUR mommy's tummy?" Ha ha ha ha ha!

So, below are some pictures from the trip. Hope you enjoy them!

Eli is One!

Eli is one year old! Actually, he's more than 13 months old now, but silly Blogger has delayed my posting on his birthday. I'm really not sure that it's going to work today, but I'll take the time to write it out and just hope that the publish button works.

I love that picture (above). He's just such a happy guy!
Eli's birthday (April 9th) fell on a Saturday, so we were able to celebrate on his actual birthday. All the Browns came (Dennis and Loretta, Kayla and Travis, and Matt and Courtney), as well as my mom and dad and cousin Lauren. We had some delicious pizza and opened presents. Eli didn't do such a great job of tearing into the wrapping paper, but oh well--maybe when he's two. :)

This is the balloon that Micah picked out to give Eli. He loved it! He kept sticking out his lips and saying, "Ooooo!"
I had a hard time picking a theme for the cake and whatnot, because it's tough to tell just what a one-year-old is into. But that boy sure does love to boogie whenever he hears music, so I decided to go with a musical theme. You'll see it on the cupcakes.

He also loves sweets, so of course he gobbled his cupcake right up.
Here are the cupcakes I made. I had a good time making the toppers out of melted chocolate.
I'm so proud of my little guy! He is so much fun right now. A month after his first birthday, he's walking all over the place, saying a few words including "ball" and "book," dancing whenever he feels the rhythm in him, and still giving the best snuggles and hugs. He's a super cute, cuddly ball of energy and I can't imagine our family without him. Love you, Eli!

Apologies

This is a post to apologize for my lack of posting. In my defense, I tried (a couple of times...), but I couldn't get Blogger to work. (Anyone else having trouble with the "publish post" button not working?)

Anyway, a lot has gone on in the past month. Eli had his first birthday, we took a trip to Mississippi to meet our new nephew, we started potty training, and the list goes on. I'm going to do my best to do some detailed catch-up posts on all the big events over the next few days. If Blogger cooperates...

The Gospel

Hey all, just thought I'd share this video. This guy is a poet (and probably the only poet I've ever understood or been entertained by), and he's got an awesome gospel presentation in this video. His name is Propaganda. Enjoy!

Whistling

So I finally got a video where you can make out Eli's whistling. It starts with Micah's attempt, and you don't actually hear Eli until briefly at the end, but I got it. Enjoy!