September 25

Today was the day we've been waiting for since Caleb's 3-year checkup back in July: his tongue-tie release.When we realized back then that he needed to have this procedure done, I knew right away I'd need time to prepare him for it. So that day, his wonderful doctor walked us to the procedure room, showed us her tools, and talked to us about the process. Since then, I've occasionally mentioned the procedure and reminded him what his doctor will do. 

Once we were back from vacation, I began preparation in earnest. Caleb and I began playing "procedure", in which one of us is the doctor and the other is the patient. We both wear goggles, and the doctor wraps the patient tightly in a blanket. Then the patient has to hold his/her mouth open and lift his/her tongue while the doctor shines his/her light in the patient's mouth.

Caleb loved this game. LOVED it. By yesterday, when he was the doctor, he would console and encourage his patient. "You're okay. You have to hold your mouth open because that's the way the procedure works!"

Caleb's 8am appointment came all too soon. Chris was able to stay home with Daisy while I took Caleb to the doctor's office. At the medical building, Caleb chose to climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. He held onto the handrail and took two flights' worth of stairs all by himself. Such a big boy.

We arrived at the doctor's office, only to find our friends Travis and Jessica and their beautiful, brand-new baby Stella there, too. Stella had a slight issue, and so the doctor bumped our appointment back. We waited an hour, reading books, watching TV, playing Angry Birds and Handwriting on my phone, and looking at pictures. Despite the delay, Caleb didn't fuss once.

Then it was our turn. The doctor came in, and Caleb was pretty excited. When they handed him his special goggles, I had to snap a picture with my phone.

He wasn't very happy after that.

The procedure didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped; the anesthetic wore off halfway through, and Caleb got pretty upset. Our doc evaluated to see if she could just stop things there, but she determined that we really needed to finish things up. Poor Caleb whimpered and fussed and really didn't want to do it, so we stopped and prayed, then wrapped Caleb back up and got to work. It was hard to watch my sweet little boy struggle through this, but I was so proud of him. Though he fussed and whimpered a bit, I could tell that he was trying so hard to be cooperative. A lone tear rolled down his cheek, but he tried his best to be brave.

My sweet little man.

Finally, the procedure was done. The doc and her nurse unwrapped Caleb, and he gave me a big hug. Then he turned to the doctor and nurse and said, "Thank you!" Our doctor took Caleb to pick out a sticker, and told him he could take two for himself and one for Daisy. For himself, he chose Belle and Cinderella. 

Yes. He chose Disney princesses.

For Daisy, he chose Hello Kitty and a Dolphin.

Then he reached back into the sticker jar, and I started to correct him. But he grabbed just one more sticker and said, "But Mommy, this is for you!"

It was The Avengers. *sigh*

Then he turned and gave our doctor a hug. 

I love my little boy so much. I love that he loves his doctor, but more than anything I love his loving, snuggly, cooperative spirit.

And then we got ice cream. We walked to the hospital cafeteria to get him a popsicle. The whole way there, he rolled his tongue about in his mouth, marvelling at his new mobility. I had never realized how little he could use his tongue, but now that it's loosed I can see all that he missed out on. He couldn't touch his tongue to the roof of his mouth. He could barely stick his tongue out. He could barely lick a popsicle.

When I gave him his popsicle, he was amazed by all he could do with his tongue. What fun! Aside from a little bit of fussiness, his recovery has been easy. Within 24 hours (really, less), he was back to his old self.

When we got home, he just wanted to dress up like a construction worker.

I asked him what he was going to build, but he told me, "I'm just pretendin' to be a construction man, Mom." Oh, okay. Glad we cleared that up.

All construction workers have Cinderella and Belle stickers on their chests, right?

(Side note: that hard hat was from my days doing temporary data entry work at the cream cheese factory. Glad I kept it!)