Happy Mother's Day!

We had a bumpy start to my first Mother's Day. She woke up at 2:30am to go potty and it was a good time to take another dose of medicine, so we then went to the kitchen. She was sort of shivering and I couldn't tell if she was effecting it or whether it was something she was reacting to. I took her temp and it was normal so I tucked her back into bed and went back to sleep. At 4am she wanted to come into bed with me and as I was taking her back to her bed, I could tell she was burning up. Back to the kitchen to take her temp and it was 101.6. The instruction sheet said to call the doctor's answering service if the temp was above 101.5, so I called. The guy at the answering service was very abrupt - what's your name, what doctor, what phone number. After he got my info, I told him that I hoped he wasn't being paid for his politeness. I mentioned it to the doctor, too, and she was glad to get the feedback as they'd had some trouble with the service. Anyway, she said that she wasn't worried - Amanda was not lethargic but was normal and chipper (too chipper for 4am), and they expect a temp, as the throat is a "dirty" place to operate and things get into the bloodstream after the surgery. She checked the stats on Amanda's weight and the type of medicine (acetaminophen w/codeine) and she said I could give her 2ml of regular children's tylenol. Not much, but it was something. I sat with her for awhile and then went back to bed.

At 6:30 or so, Amanda came in to sleep with me (we enjoy snuggling weekend mornings) and she was much cooler. We slept and finally got up, and it was 7:45 when I walked into the kitchen! Woo-hoo for sleeping in late! I will pay for it when it's time to start getting up early again, but it was a nice start to the day after the restless night. It's interesting how awake you can feel at 4am when you think something's wrong with your child. We had breakfast and took a little walk outside, spending some quality time in the sun, petting the neighbor's cat who joined us on the sidewalk. He/she was very friendly and loved being pet, so Amanda really got to be hands-on. Spook (our black cat) is pretty good most of the time, but Scout (white cat) is just starting to be open to Amanda's approaching him. This sidewalk cat just sprawled in front of us and begged to be pet. It was cool outside but nice enough in the sun.

Back at our house, Amanda did some bubble blowing outside and then more sticker fun inside. I made some jello and we had that as a morning snack. I heated up some lunch but she didn't eat much, and after a few bites she wanted the dishpan for fake-throwing up. She even took the dishpan (small one from her first hospital visit) to bed with her for naptime (but never had to use it).

She slept from 12:30 to 2:40, when Aunt Cindy and her son Brandon arrived for a Mother's Day visit from Lincoln. She was happy to see Aunt Cindy, and we were glad she got to meet Brandon, the only cousin she hadn't met (he wasn't able to make the family welcome party). Cindy had called to tell me she planned to visit, and that she would stay with Amanda if I wanted to do any shopping, etc., so I took her up on it and made a list that morning! I got some cat food at the pet store, a handprint kit (for my "baby") at the craft store, and some clothes and shoes at the department store. Then to Walgreens to pick up some pics I'd ordered and the grocery store for a few items, and the final stop was Runza for a great burger and fries and a chocolate shake (not only did Amanda not eat much for lunch, as I was shopping, I realized I hadn't either!)

I arrived back home a little over the hour and a half mark we had sort of set, and found that all three had been busy bees! Brandon had swept out the garage, and swept the sidewalks and driveway (I had rushed to get the mowing done the night before surgery but didn't take the time to clean any of the grass/leaves/crap off the walks). They picked up sticks, vacuumed/swept the floors, washed our lunch dishes, picked up downstairs, and Cindy even brought cookie dough and baked up some fresh M&M cookies! What a great Mother's Day present!! She gave me a card and book, and also had a card for Amanda to sign. I was impressed at Amanda's letters - she traces a lot of letters (one Saturday, all I did was constantly write out the alphabet and she would trace the letters - over and over and over...) but this was "freehand" - Cindy wrote "MAMA" and Amanda looked at it and recreated it on the envelope, and the same for her name inside. Cool! Thank you Cindy & Brandon! =)

Amanda helped me finish my burger (she loves the pickles) and she had some strawberries while I had some cookies! We played our Memory game a few times, and then took a bath and had plenty of time to read books. We read 4 books, and another favorite I thought I'd mention is one she's been quoting quite a bit. It's from Aunt Patty and it's called "I love you so..." (or something like that). "I love you - how much? - So much - How much is So? - more than you'll ever know". It goes into loving a child when she's nice or crabby or being naughty, or is far away, love that's deeper than the ocean, higher than the stars, etc. We've been repeating the first lines to each other. "I love you - how much - SO much - So much more than you'll ever know". It's a neat book, and since we've been saying it a lot I reread it again tonight.

Another note: One of the tops that I took on the second trip was a simple knit shirt with yellow and light blue stripes. She has seen it hanging in my closet over the last couple of weeks and exclaims over it, "Mama! Look!" because she remembers it from our first days together. I decided to wear it on surgery day (and slept in it that night, and wore it the next day...too much information?) She loved seeing it and when I took it off and put it on top of the dirty clothes basket, she picked it up and hugged it. Today I took the clothes basket downstairs (that's as far as that project went - still haven't washed the clothes). When I got home from shopping, the shirt was upstairs on my living room coffee table. I mentioned to Cindy the Russia background of the shirt, and she said that Amanda started to miss me, so when she saw the shirt downstairs she latched onto it and felt better after hugging it and carrying it around with her. How sweet is that?!

I noticed this afternoon that her voice sounds higher and more "child-like" or "precious" (for lack of better terms). I videotaped her but don't have time to find a good segment (I can only post 10k videos and haven't figured out how to make them take less room, so I can only post about 18 seconds). Anyway, I had her recite the pledge again just before bedtime and it was a small enough file, so I'll post 'take 2' of the pledge and you can see if you think her voice is different. Lynnette said a friend whose son had the surgery said that her son sounded very different, and not "like her son", and it's not surprising that it would affect her voice. I'm just curious whether it's permanent, so to speak, or just while everything is healing.