Family

After way too many antibiotics, way too many doctor appointments, way too many probiotics, diahrrea-laden diapers and one baby yeast infection, Tessa got her ear tubes last Friday.

Being her mommy, I was freaking out all week. Luckily, I was super distracted with work but – still – I was freaking out. Part of my concern, besides the whole putting my baby under and cutting her ear, was that she couldn’t eat for six hours prior to her surgery. So at 2 a.m., Rob woke up, made a bottle, fed Tessa and put her back in her crib – all in less than 8 minutes. Impressive! We were off to a great start.

We left our house at 5:45 a.m. and drove to the Phoenix Children’s hospital . . . right after a trip through a drivethru Starbucks. We needed to check-in at the Outpatient Surgery Center. Of course, there are three Outpatient buildings and we went through all three of them before getting to where we needed to be. I checked in Tessa, filled out her paperwork and we settled in.

I packed as if we would be gone for a fortnight – or at least overnight. I packed a duffel with: two flavors of Graduates’ puffs, 10 ounces of formula, a jumpsuit for Tessa, two stuffed animals, two books, two blankets, a finger puppet – and all of the normal essentials, such as diapers and wipes (obvie). Rob packed his iPhone. Of course, we ended up using this more than anything I packed.

My parents showed up and waited patiently in the lobby while we were in pre-op. I don’t want to be totally obnoxious but Tessa was the celebrity of the pre-op area. She’s so darn cute and the nurses kept bringing other colleagues by to see her and how cute she is – yup, she’s totally awesome, the cutest ever – yay!

The actual procedure was ten minutes. She did great. Was very loopy afterwards and basically slept all day. But she did great. And she’s feeling better and has already perked up and started taking on the world even more than before.

Do you ever think our kids – even as little as 9-month old Tessa – can look at us (i.e. her parents and pediatrician) and say, Suck it.

Because I do.

My pediatrician says it a bit more eloquently and along the lines of babies hearing a threat and responding. So the threat of Tessa needing to grow and crawl and stand – yup, Tessa heard this and was all, You can suck it.

Because she’s moving and she’s pulling herself up to standing (and subsequently falling a lot) and has gone through a growth spurt . . . and soon will be driving her walker to college, drinking beer, getting a job, and making me a grandmother. In the meantime, she’s all, you can suck it.

I’m not saying we’re out of the woods yet because her ear infections definitely impact her appetite and energy but she’s persevering and showing her mommy, I know what I’m doing.

And what I’ve learned is that I need to baby proof my home. When she ate a piece of a paper, I was all, Okay, the time has come to childproof the house. And then when I went to feed her a bottle and found a piece of cardboard wedged to the roof of her mouth, I was all, Oh shit, we need to childproof the house!

And Tessa was all, hahahaha! You can suck it.

Tessa finished her fourth round of antibiotics on Sunday for her most recent ear infection. This video was taken on Tuesday and on Friday we are scheduled for her ear tube surgery.

Cheers for days of clearer ears ahead!

Check out the video here.

When there are problems in life, I blame Apple.

Yes, Mr. Jobs’ Apple. That Apple. That awesome, extremely superior, totally rad and amazingly amazing Apple.

My husband is a software engineer and we – therefore – are Apple snobs. We have an iMac, a MacBook, two iPhones, an iPad and Tessa knows how to work all of these . . . probably better than me.

Well, the other night I was working on an HTML newsletter. I like working on HTML stuff because it makes me feel all powerful. I AM LYNSI and I can change the Internet – hahahahaha!

Except this one evening – the evening before we are set to go on our one weekend getaway of the year – I’m not really rocking the HTML.

Rob enters the room with a bunch of swagger, What are you doing?

Working on an HTML newsletter.

What program are using?

Microsoft Front Page.

You should really use the Mac. It’s much better. I’ll find a free program to download.

A few minutes later Rob yells to me, Hey, want me to teach you how to use this program?

No, not really. I just want this done. Do you want to do it?

Sure, I can do it. I actually see in code. It’s a lot easier for me to just write it in notepad than to use that Microsoft program.

Okay.

Three hours later, Rob enters our bedroom where I’m packing, Um . . . can I see that Microsoft Front Page program? I think it would be easier to just start over.

Uh huh.

As a friend of mine said, Mac might be better but it’s a PC World.