January 11- Surgery Day!

Today was the day Caden has been dreading for a long time!  When he had his tonsils out, he woke up so sick we thought he needed his appendix taken out.  It ended up just being nerves!  The dr. said he had never seen such a little guy so nervous!  Since then, we've been given medicine to give him if he is going to be in a nervous situation.  I didn't give that to him this week because I was unsure of how it would work with the anesthesia.  It was pajama day at school and they were having breakfast in his class so he already knew not to eat anything when he woke up.  We told him it was time to go to the dr. and surprisingly, he did GREAT!  His only request was that our whole family come!  SO, we loaded up both vans and headed there.  They let me stay with him while they gave him the gas and he went to sleep.  It only took about 3 seconds!  CRAZY!  As soon as I went back to the waiting area, the power went out!!!!!  I must admit, I freaked a little!  My 5 year old was knocked out in the back, in the middle of his mouth surgery and it turned pitch black dark for a second.  Thankfully, the generators came right on, Cass went to ask and make sure he was ok and we were good to go!  About 10 minutes later, they said I could pull my car around and come carry him out!  It wasn't NEAR as bad as he thought it was going to be and I was SOOOO proud of him (and thankful God answered our prayers about his nerves!  He knew that God was going to take care of him!) One of their verses last year was, "So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid."  Deuteronomy 31.6  We talked about that and it's amazing to watch God's word comfort a five year old little boy!!!

 Before they moved him in the OR...in his pajmamas for pajama day!

When I picked him up, he decided not to go to school.  We had MomTime at church this morning so he wanted to go to ChildCare with Calder and Bates.  He started hurting a little while he was there so I left early to get him some medicine then we all headed to Chick-fil-A for a milkshake (his choice).  Calder got a kids meal and we always trade in the toy for ice cream.  They asked him if he wanted to fix it himself today!  OF COURSE HE DID!!!  We eat there so often that they pretty much all know us in there!  If we ever move away, we will DEFINITELY miss the Northport Chick-fil-A!!!

Calder fixing his ice cream!

Bates also drank a whole cup of strawberry milk in about 20 minutes this morning!  I've been trying to get him to drink milk for several months and have tried everything I can think of.  This was a big accomplishment to me and it means he can probably completely stop nursing very soon!!!  He hasn't been willing to drink water, milk, juice or really anything except sweet tea so I've been reluctant to completely stop nursing (because of his weight issues)  SO, hopefully this milk will make him grow big and strong!!!  I told Cass if I have to put him in the car when we wake up every morning and drive him around to drink his milk, I may consider doing that!  Haha

Before Christmas, I asked for suggestions on parenting books for how to discipline and handle a strong-willed child (other than Dobson's The Strong Willed Child book)  One of our children can be extremely difficult and I always try to do the right thing to discipline him but NOTHING seems to work!  He has a kind and loving heart and genuinely cares for everyone around him but struggles with respecting and listening to Cass and me.  I ordered almost all of the suggestions.  A couple of people that I really respect suggested the book Give Them Grace and I started reading it and REALLY liked it!  I'm not finished yet but starting tonight, I'm going to lead a group on Wednesday nights at church and we're going to go through the book!  I will let you know how it is when I'm finished reading but it looks like it's going to be excellent and I'm excited how God works in me and in the mom's that signed up to do it!  I'm praying that we learn to be graceful mom's in how we interact with our children!

Before we left for church, the boys got in their dress up clothes.  I didn't get a picture of Calder before he changed.  They LOVE dress up clothes and play in them every single day!  (boy dress up clothes are hard to come by but we bought a bunch at Target last year the week of Halloween then went back for a price adjustment the next week and got them all 90% off!!!  Just a thought for cheap dress up clothes!!!)

Caden the pirate!

Aaarrrrrgggghh!

He was feeling MUCH better from his little surgery!

And of course Bates wanted to join in on the fun!

He is ALWAYS smiling and I LOVE it!

AND, I love all the toys in the background!  Our boys LOVE to play and I'm thankful that they are blessed with so many toys to play with!  

Caden wore his Clemson hoodie to church tonight!  He looks so grown up! (and he's getting a major haircut tomorrow!)

After church tonight, we didn't get home until after 8 so instead of cooking dinner, I picked up a Hungry Howies pizza.  While we were eating we were talking about how we're going to have to start buying more than one now that Bates is eating (he has been eating A LOT lately!) and Calder said, "Y'all are really getting fat".  WHO KNEW HE EVEN KNEW WHAT THAT MEANT!  We said, "why did you say that?" and he said, "It's because you eat all of that junk!"  He will NOT be saying that to ANYONE else but we did think it was funny!  I didn't even know what to say! (and junk is not something that is regularly eaten at our house!)

OK...I haven't made my goal of going to bed before 10 a single night this year :(  I have blogged every day and I am reminded of why it hasn't happened in the past but I know I'll be thankful at the end of the year that I did!)