We had one more procedure done today on Jonathan. His tube site didn't fully heal on its own so we had to schedule a brief visit to the OR to get it closed up permanently. I was able to escort him to the OR until he went under anesthesia, which is why I look like some odd combination of doctor, exterminator, and cafeteria worker.
Everything went fine and he was able to go home a few hours later. Jonathan missed three days of school and it took about a week for him to be totally pain free. I know from my own experience that any cuts through the stomach muscles is painful. You don't realize how much you use your core muscles for every movement until something like this happens.
Hopefully this will be the last thing he has to do for a very long time.
Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you. I'm glad that you were able to get out and enjoy your favorite soup!
Julia and her friend Sierra are learning too much in school. They recently finished an assignment on persuasive letter writing. Afterwards, they applied their newly refined skills into something a little more advantageous.
Tonight was a sad night. Stacey and I had been noticing that Julia's hamster Valentine had been acting odd the past few weeks. Upon further inspection I noticed that there was a large lump (probably a tumor) that had grown underneath her cheek.
We got the kids together and showed them what was going on. The odd thing was that she died right in front of us while we were talking with my Dad about the likelihood of having to take her to "the vet" so she wouldn't be in any more pain. It was a little surreal that we were right next to her cage when it happened.
Julia was very sad and didn't want to see Valentine because it was too upsetting. Jonathan, on the other hand, wanted to stay with me and ended up holding Valentine for a little bit. It was interesting that their reactions were on opposite ends of the spectrum.
After a few minutes we had a small ceremony and buried Valentine in the backyard. Julia made this rock and put our names on the other side. Although Jonathan has said "it was the worst day of his life", he and Julia haven't mentioned it since! Kids are pretty funny.
Julia had some make up schoolwork since we were out of town over Spring Break. Below is a short story she wrote and typed on her iPad/Bluetooth keyboard yesterday at school. Amazing! You can tell that she likes to read and why she has been scoring so high in reading and writing at school. She has a gift!
Leprechaun in My Backyard!
Dear Aunt Michelle,
I intend to tell you everything when I visit Sunday but I guess I can tell you now. It all started when I was hula hooping in the field next to my house, and I saw this green hat laying there. At first I thought it was just my neighbors hat because they love to dress up for St. Patrick’s day. But about five minutes later the hat started moving! I Almost screamed but caught myself just in time. I realized that the thing might be a leprechaun.
Everybody knows that if you catch a leprechaun and let it go without harm then he will tell you where his pot of gold is. All I had to do was catch this leprechaun and I would be rich!
I silently walked over to the hat and picked it up but I felt like I was carrying twenty pounds! It was a leprechaun! But before I could react, the leprechaun jumped out of my arms, and started running away but after five yards he just disappeared!
I had seen this in movies before. I pretended to act confused but I heard the leprechaun teleport behind me so I dived for him but missed again! Then as quick as a mouse I dug a hole right where the leprechaun was going to teleport next.
Everybody knows that leprechauns are really short. I made sure that the leprechaun was not going to get out of the hole and raced to my house to get my cat carrier. When I got back I locked him in the cat carrier and he told me the gold was in the park under the slide.
It turns out he wasn’t lying. I plan to buy a mansion with the gold. I hope another leprechaun will come near my house soon.
Love,
Julia
