Butterfly Exhibit

Saturday morning Quinn and I went downtown to see the Butterfly Exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. This was our 2nd playdate this year. I thought it would be so great for Quinn to see the butterflies flying around, but she had other thoughts. It wasn't quite her cup of tea. She was a little overwhelmed by the steam to keep the temperature at a balmy 80 degrees, as well as the, um... butterflies fluttering around! But she was a pretty good sport and she hung in there enough for me to enjoy the sights and get a couple of pictures.

Wow... this is a lot to take in

Don't ask me to name the species...

They were everywhere!

Look Mom, do you see the butterfly on the floor?

Well, peek-a-boo!

I invited TJ and Lily along and was happy to see them both again. It had been over a year since Quinn and Lily had seen each other, but they became fast friends and even held hands at one point when we were walking down the stairs to get some lunch. Too precious - of course, we didn't have our cameras out for the photo op. However, I did get this one, which is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

I know, we are just too cute together!

After we finished up with lunch we went outside for a little while to play (translation - let the girls run around while TJ and I could catch up a little). Quinn and Lily saw the carousel and wanted a ride, so I jumped on with them. Apparently, poor TJ has a severe aversion to anything that spins. And I can safely say, that while that sort of stuff really doesn't bother me, TJ wouldn't have liked that carousel one bit! Check out the picture she got of us 3 enjoying the horses!

It was a good day. When we got home, we each took a well-deserved nap before we headed out for our evening plans.

Our Star Patient

This is the day we had been dreading for a month - Quinn had tubes put in her ears and had her adenoids taken out. Turns out, of course, that it wasn't nearly as bad as what we had imagined it would be. Quinn, ever the trooper, was a great sport through it all. But I digress - let me tell you first how we got to this day.

Since last June, Quinn has had ear infections and stagnant fluid that just wouldn't go away. From June to October, she had 4 ear infections in a row, one for each month. Just when she'd finish up with one antibiotic, we'd take her back to the doctor for a check up and she'd have another infection brewing. After October, however, she stopped having the infections so it sort of fell off our radar screen. Although the one constant when we'd have to go to the doctor for some random check up or whatever virus-of-the-month popped up was fluid in her right ear (mostly, sometimes both) that just would not go away. Finally in January I took her to see my ENT and he recommended we have the tubes put in, as well as have her adenoids taken out. Swollen adenoids are mostly responsible for ear issues (shocker there!), trouble breathing through the nose (which she had), and snoring (bingo). So we sucked it up and scheduled her for surgery.

Now, through this whole ordeal, Quinn has never had trouble hearing or had speech development issues as a result of the ear infections and fluid. But right on cue, this past week alone she all-of-the-suddenly started asking us to repeat ourselves when we spoke to her. And her snoring was getting out of control - she constantly had a stuffy nose! So Kirch took her to the doctor as a precaution earlier this week to find out that she now had a good amount of fluid in both ears. I guess the surgery couldn't have come at a better time.

So it's game day and we were up at 5am this morning. Well, that's sort of a half-truth. I had been "up" since 3:30am, but had finally gotten out of bed to begin getting ready for this procedure since at 5. Any mother or father can tell you - you have no idea what you are signing up for when you decide to become a parent. No one can prepare you for the anxiety you will experience when you have to see your baby through her first surgery, even as minor as Quinn's was.

We got to the hospital at 6am to begin the paperwork and "orientation" process. I have to say, our nurse, Janet, was wonderful and really made us feel comfortable about the whole procedure. At 7:30, Quinn and I gowned up and I went back with her for her anesthesia. I am absolutely positive that was MUCH worse on me than it was her. With kids, they use gas first before they put the IV in. Quinn was very calm and accommodating until they put that mask over her face and then my heart was ripped out of my chest. She cried and thrashed and was making no bones about the fact that she was NOT happy with breathing in the awful fumes of the gas. You know, the kind of crying that has no sound. The tears were flowing... from the both of us. After she was asleep, they let me kiss her on the cheek and I was whisked out of there in seconds flat - THAT WAS HARD leaving her. By the time I got out to the waiting room, I had gotten myself together and sat with Kirch for the next 40 minutes to wait for Dr. Daly to come and get us. Surprisingly, Kirch and I were both pretty calm while we were waiting to see our Q-Bug. Before we knew it, the doctor came to get us and as we were warned, Quinn was up and pretty hysterical - lots of crying, disorientation, sleepiness, gurgling from the surgery - oh it was a test on all 3 of us. After on-and-off crying jags and naps while she came out of anesthetic, she finally started drinking on her own, so they pulled the IV out and we were able to leave. YAY! Homeward Bound!

Don't we look great? Ready to go!

By the way, the surgery went great - and Dr. Daly said it was good timing, too, because she had puss in both ears that he drained when he was putting the tubes in. He said we would've had a major ear infection on our hands within a week or so had this surgery not been scheduled. And when we got home and started getting back into some sort of a routine, we put Quinn down for a much-needed nap. She slept great - and was so surprisingly quiet that I had to touch her to see if she was breathing! It was very relieving to hear her sleep so peacefully for the first time in quite a while.

We kept her little scrubs outfit and cap for souvenirs, along with her hospital bracelets and even the band-aid that covered her IV boo-boo. That stuff, along with the 2 pictures posted in here, will definitely be incorporated into one of my many scrapbooks!

I have to say, I'm glad today is over - my overflowing heart can't bear that kind of strain for too long!

Now these are some good dress up clothes!