Heartbeats

Our neighbor's son has surgery tomorrow.  He's fourteen and he has had a pacemaker since he was a baby.   Over time they need to be replaced and it's that time again.   He seems fairly calm about the whole thing, especially since he's been through it before, but it's still an important day for him tomorrow.

His four grandparents are in town and we stopped in this afternoon to deliver a card my son made with us for him.  My daughter was going to help, but she fell asleep at the table eating strawberries so she missed out.   My son was excited about doing some stamping and making a card for Blake.

In the middle of this, my son and I had another one of those battles of will in which he didn't get his way (that being to put his hand on the ink pad and rub ink all over the table).  He got upset and decided he wanted to go to bed.  I got into his bed with him and we talked about how he and I had both been having strong feelings all day and that it had not been our best day.  

I asked him what he thought we should put into Blake's card and he said, "kisses".  I asked him how, and he told me, "we blow kisses into the envelope."  I marveled at the imagination of a child.   So that's just what we did.  My husband, son and I blew kisses into the envelope for Blake and then sealed it.  My son decided there needed to be a red bow on the front so he got one out and stuck it on.

Before we went over to Blake's house, I asked my son if there was anything we should take to Blake as a present.  My son said that yes, we needed to take some strawberry yogurt to him and that we should bring a spoon too.   Now that he thought about it, he was going to need a strawberry yogurt and spoon as well because he could eat his yogurt with Blake.

Yogurt, spoons and card in hand, over to the neighbor's house we went.  Blake opened his card and then he and my son sat at the table and ate their yogurts together.   It was very sweet.

We wish Blake the best tomorrow and look forward to seeing him home on Tuesday with his new, upgraded pacemaker.

The Big Boy Update:  It was one of those days.  My son would not listen.  Oh, he would listen, but he would intentionally and immediately do the thing you just told him he could not do.  It was a crazy day of testing.  When my husband got home he saw it in action, so it wasn't just me my son was testing.   I yelled multiple times and my son got upset eventually, saying he felt like he just wanted to go to bed.   I got in the bed with him and he and I had a little talk and we decided to be good friends again.  He is sensitive, but he's more hard-headed than he is sensitive some days.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She was itchy.  She's not commonly itchy, although bug bites give her the itching fits.   At any rate, it was non-specific in location and seemingly all over so I gave her some Benadryl after the pool.   She fell asleep fifteen minutes later with her head on the dining room table after eating some strawberries.