Bad parents

The Boy had tubes put in his ears today. He was so brave - not a single tear even as they wheeled him away from us to the OR in a wagon. A wagon! How cool is that?

Of course I forgot my camera. I did have my cell phone and snapped a few pictures. Now I know this will be stupid, but how do I get the pictures off my phone to the computer. Email? which we don't subscribe to with our cell phones but I think it's there and maybe they just charge by the usage? Special USB cord? Anyone? Help!

When we got home and he was feeling better, he walked out onto the deck with me.

"Mom, I can hear wind! I never heard wind before!"

We get a lot of wind here, people.

Ouch.

Rain rain go away

We have recovered our four inch moisture deficit for the year in the last 5 days.

Moisture is good.

Flooding is not good.

Dang, I am sick of the rain.

Finally

This is my token American Idol post.

As busy as we are out of the house this season, I still found time to partake of my favorite reality television program.

For the first time ever, my rock star won.

I heart David Cook.

Rock On!

Beat

We are tired here at the Stiletto Casa.

We have soccer twice a week and baseball twice a week.

And then there is that same old same old two job thing.

I have forgotten how to make a decent meal, and we have almost resorted to taking the least wrinkled clothing out of the hamper to wear. Okay that's a lie - the only time I did that was when I forgot to wash The Boy's soccer shirt.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Tonight was The Boy's last soccer game.

And, I should be finished up with my old job just in time for summer.

Un-neighborly

We have been in our home for almost 11 months. There are only four other homes on our block, and a few others in the vicinity though not on our street.

We've met all of our neighbors, except for the home next to us on the west side.

We never see them leave or return home. There are never any lights on in the house. The windows are always covered. They have a deck on the back of the house on the second story, but there are no stairs to the ground. I found that a little odd. The only sign of life there is the garbage dumpster that gets rolled out to the street every Thursday morning and back up to the house sometime after dark in the evening.

We did see the lady of the house one time, though. She was outside on a sunny Sunday morning last summer. We could see her in the yard from our breakfast table.

She was out there with a bottle of Round-up spraying anything that resembled the color green in her yard.

How are we spending our economic stimulus money? Besides putting gas in our cars so we can get to work, I mean. We spent last Sunday planting a fast growing hedge between us and the A.ddams F.amily next door.

A lesson on "Mens"

The Boy and I were at the checkout in W@lmart the other day when he brought me an item from the impulse shelves.

"What's this?" he asked, holding up a miniature can of Axe men's body spray. I told him men use that so they smell good.

"Like the hockey players," he commented.

"Exactly," I said. "Would you like to have that?" I offered, knowing full well that he didn't want to release the death grip he had on that can.

His eyes lit up. "Yes!"

When we got home he sprayed it on liberally, and I had to advise him against using too much scent of any kind, but I did tell him that he smelled wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that I needed to give him a big smooch on the cheek!

He wagged his finger at me. "Mens don't like no kissy kissy," he said.

Bop-Bop

A fellow blogger wrote the other day that her daughter calls chairs "sit downs" and how she hoped the tot would never learn the word chair.

One of my fondest memories is when The Boy heard daddy's H@rley for the first time and said, "Bop-Bop!"

Referring, of course, to the sound of BOPBOPBOPbopbopbopbop for which H@rley-Davidson is so famous.

Sadly, he has long since fallen to calling them motorcycles.

But I never will.

Sweet Pea

It's Teacher Appreciation Week.

When The Boy and I went shopping on Saturday, I suggested he choose a gift for his teacher to acknowledge that we appreciate all she does for the children.

The Boy and I love to smell things at the store. By things I mean candles, shampoo, shower gel, lotions, etc. So naturally, we gravitated to the girly area of the store in our search for a gift. We smelled all the different bath gels, lotions, and body sprays, and the boy settled on Sweet Pea. I am not fond of floral scents in general, but this is one of my favorites.

"I know she will love this," he said of his purchase.

"This is exactly what her perfume smells like!"

Under the knife

After waiting for several months for the thick goo in my son's inner ear to magically disappear, he has failed another audiology test at school. What they consider to be normal hearing range for optimum learning in the classroom, he cannot hear. There is a 25 to 30 decibel hearing loss.

Funny, though, that his teacher doesn't notice anything wrong. She says he doesn't seem to be impaired at all in the classroom, other than being distractable and being unable to stay on task at times. I'm guessing that could be due to things happening around him that are at tones that his ears are susceptible to hearing?

Anyway, via the internet I found a group of pediatric ENT specialists, and took him in for a second opinion. Remember the first MD that immediately wanted to remove tonsils and adenoids? I just couldn't make the decision to be that invasive. He was so quick to come to that conclusion, and it made me uncomfortable. "Well, as long as we are in there, we should just do it all. Why wait?"

Because it's my son, that's why.

Anyway, after an exam and yet another hearing test, new MD did say there is goo in there that needs to come out, that The Boy probably hasn't had normal hearing in quite some time, and he recommended putting tubes in his ears.

That is all.

Tubes.

I asked about the tonsils and adenoids. He said, " I can tell this child has not had a lot of problems with sore throats, so I see no reason to remove anything at this time. Yeah, they are large but not massive. I don't look at them and think OH MY GOD THEY ARE HUGE!"

I love him.

And, rather than pressuring us into making a snap decision like the other MD, he asked if we needed to go home and think it over.

No need. Our minds were already made up. We scheduled the surgery for May 29.

I feel so badly for The Boy. I can't even imagine what he has missed. Nothing screams Mother of The Year like letting your child suffer with hearing loss during his first year of school.

Sweet Boy

The Boy caught me crying over my missing Itty the other day. He tiptoed into his room and shut the door.

He emerged later with this picture that he drew for me.

This is Itty in my heart.

He explained that if I keep Itty in my heart, he will always be with me.

Sometimes kids are wise beyond their years, aren't they?