3rd time is a charm

The kids' reminder on the counter. A little zoo-like, yes?

Gabriel went in for surgery this morning on his ears. Yup, his 3rd time. Three sets of tubes. The doc also wanted to make sure that his speech delay was not due to hearing loss. We were never able to get a good read in the testing booth, so we opted for testing under anesthesia.

We kept him up late the night before and he got a late night bowl of cereal before his fast started. I also hoped he would sleep in, since his appointment wasn't until 10. No such luck. 5:45am was calling his name. We mostly kept him upstairs, away from the kitchen. Although early morning cartoons, littered with pop-tart and cereal commercials galore, reminded him to sign 'hungry' 'cereal' and 'eat'.

10am never seems late until you are starving your sleep-deprived four year old. It seems even later when the doc runs late and gets to you at 11. Gabriel was a good sport, though. Todd made sure he had 8 episodes of Sesame Street on his iPhone. We went for a walk outside. He watched some tv. He tried to escape. He was successful once. He learned some ABC's on Daddy's phone. We quietly sang songs. He said hello to the receptionist approximately 18 times. He tried to steal sips of water from the water fountain. He was too short. He got to wear a pint sized hospital gown and socks.

We had plenty of time to get in some practice runs with the cherry-cola smelling face mask. He's now a professional mask sniffer. And, he knows where it belongs:

He had no problems heading back to the surgical area holding the nurses hand. No crying. I commented that it was the first time he hadn't cried. The doctor, standing there, remarks, "Yah, well it must be the female nurse thing. Mama didn't raise no homo." He looks at Todd for some testosterone backup and follows up with a story about football, which leads to a Victoria's Secret comment..... Okay seriously? Is this weird only to me? Thanks for trying to put our minds at ease (? I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt ?)... I suggest sticking to conversations about hearing loss...

Waking up was another story. Frowns and tears. Hugs, kisses and gallons of juice consumed.

After getting some food in his belly, he was feeling rockin':

The results? The doc (sticking to what he does best), says Gabriel's hearing is not good. His hearing is great!! Hooray!