The Doctor Is In

Surgery totally sucks--especially when it's your one and half year old getting cut. Thankfully it is now over and she is doing great, but it was definitely really scary.

The surgery was to remove a little bit of tissue that was connected from her bladder all the way through her bellybutton. It has bled a little bit every day since she was born and stained nearly all her clothes. We found out not long ago that she would definitely need surgery and scheduled it for three weeks from that day. Nick wanted to do it right away, but I just wasn't ready.

It was done at Evanston Hospital by a University of Chicago surgeon (who was awesome). The hospital has a great program where you can visit beforehand and take a tour to understand what will happen on the day of the surgery. You can even bring your older kid with so it is not so scary and unfamiliar when it actually happens. They sent us home with a little box of medical items so that we could get Josie used to seeing them.

We pulled them out every day to play with.

Even Artie got into the spirit and let Josie practice her doctor skills on him.

On the day of the surgery Josie was not allowed to eat or drink anything prior. We expected her to be a screaming mess, but thankfully we had the first surgery of the day and she did great. It helped that the hospital has an awesome play room with every kind of toy, book or craft project imaginable.

Finally it was time for the surgery. We took a last goodbye picture of her belly

and then walked her down to the holding room where we waited for the nurses and doctors to take her in for the surgery. I hate to say it, but those little hospital gowns are awfully cute.

The surgery took just over an hour and once they got her back in the holding room, I was able to sit with her until they got her detached from the machines and brought her back to the pediatrics area. She was still really sleepy from the anesthesia.

Nick met us back by her room and we settled down to wait what we expected to be two hours or more.

Thankfully it was only about 30 minutes before we were on our way home. Once there, we all just vegged out on the couch or in bed. It took a lot out of us all.

By that evening Josie was interested (really interested) in food and was running unsteadily around. She fell right to sleep and slept through the night no problem. Just a day later Josie seems basically recovered, if a little cranky. Now if only Nick and I could recover...

snnnn-ohhhhhh!!!

Josie loves snow (or nnnn-oh in josie-speak). We have had only a couple opportunities to discover this love, but have tried to make the best of them. After bundling up

we headed outside

where Josie had a nice little snack

and then stayed for an HOUR. Even after an hour (and a snowball in the face), she did not want to come in. Maybe it was because I was doing all the heavy lifting. Whenever we approached thicker snow on the sidewalk, Josie stopped, requested "up" and sat quietly while I walked through the thick snow. As soon as we reached the end, she would wiggle to get down and was off again.

I can't say I blame her for wanting to stay outside. It was such a beautiful evening, with snow blanketing everything and piled knee high on all sides. In fact, the piled snow was the perfect height to push a toddler into.

What you can't see here is that Josie insisted I join her. First she had me sit down next to her and then she told me night-night so that I would lay down next to her in the snow. Good times.