Leaves are falling, leaves are falling all around...

When I was little the sharp, crisp air, the leaves collecting in crunchy piles along the sidewalks, all heralded new beginning: fall. It was not just that autumn was in swing, it was more. School was starting and the long, lingering days of summer were receding in to the background, this was serious, this was september.
In a flash, even september seems to be flying by.
I love new starts, I remember new notebooks with my perfect handwriting vowing that this year would be the year, this year I would stop being the dreamy look-out-of-the-window student, I would start being the A-plus student.
And what a dream it was, for at least a week:)
I find that our lives are taking that same turn, change, newness, things ready for a new start. Matt still waits to hear back about the many jobs he has been applying for - I believe in him. I know things will be okay, we could just use that good news sooner than later:)
Something about today, the quality of late afternoon sunlight, the blue of the sky and the laughing little smiles from our two lovely boys made me think that we are on the up swing. It just felt that way.
I try to remember to be thankful, to be grateful for all the good and to try and not internalize all of the worry and strife, today that was pretty easy.

Living in the moment, right inside of it is sometimes the key to enjoying life I think. That moment of pavement and rolling plastic cars, children laughing and our family together, I am glad I could savour it, I sucked all the marrow of it, it was delicious.

The only way is up...

I feel as though anything that could have gone wrong with Henry's simple tear duct surgery, did! After the horrendous post-anaesthesia wake-up, following the actual stent loosening and coming out ( it literally looked like a figure eight of very thin, very pliable fishing line coming out of the corner of his eye and resting on the lens of his eyeball), to the visit on Friday ( emergency visit due to the stent coming out), as well as the stent continuing to come out further on Saturday, to the second surgery Sunday morning! Suffice it to say, Henry did not love it, but it is over. His eye appears to be okay, nothing coming out, all the parts are inside. That is what we like. Phhheewwww. Nana, aka Matt's mom was kind enough to turn around and come back over to our little small apartment and sleep on an air mattress to be with first, Eliot, while Henry was in surgery and then Henry while Eliot came with us to see ( drum roll please) Dr. B. who is in fact just bloody lovely!

Boston Children's Hospital boasts quite a rep, especially for an out-of-towner like myself, I was more than impressed. Dr. B appears to be everything that Dr. P is not: organized, informative, warm and yes, has a plan for our little corn-muffin, Eliot. Complete with colour charts of the urinary system to handy pull-out plasticized sheets of kidneys with easy to understand drawings that he patiently explains a step at a time. I feel as though we have broken up with Dr. P, we just could not abide his ways, and we are seeing a new flame, the Doc with the charts, the man with the plan, Doc. Beeeeeee.

We are thrilled, Matt and I could barely contain our relief after the hospital tours this week, it was a wonderful to have such a good experience. Thanks to Uncle Mark for hanging out Eliot in the waiting room so we could have a proper chat without the "...no, don't touch that, sorry, go on, Eliot, not in your mouth please. Sorry, do go on, hang-on, I told you not to lick that, it's dirty" scenario playing out.

More tests for Eli, but at least these tests have a purpose and a plan.

Also, EI came today to see about my boys and to see if the still qualified at 16 months for more help. They don't 'cause they are genuises and they are awesome. Just saying...hope this is the momentum roll that continues. We could use it.

Not so Routine, Routine Surgery

What a day we had yesterday - there is something beautiful about the normalcy of watching my boys play in their tent and haul around toys. After what was supposed to be a "routine" tear duct probing and irrigation/repair for Henry it turned into something a lot more involved!
After arriving at MEEI at 6:00 am, he was prepped for surgery and I went with him while he was put under. All was relatively normal until we found ourselves waiting into the second hour of his "20 minute surgery"...
I met with Henry, my little 16mth old guy, still out and swaddled in the arms of a nurse, a wad of gauze under his nose, both eyes nearly swollen shut, one purpled and beginning to look like Rocky Balboa! He had blood coming out of his nose at intervals and soaking the little piece of gauze, ugh, it was something to see.
Needless to say, I was not prepared for that as I was told that he would not even know what had occurred and would pretty much dust himself off and keep on keeping on...
I felt the colour drain from my face and the nurse telling me to breathe as I held my little guy. He was given morphine twice as he was not dealing with coming out of the anaesthesia very well. He was kicking and wiggling and screaming quite a bit until we were admitted to our own little room. Finally, at long last listening to his Dada's voice reading a story, he fell asleep.
Apparently, it was not as routine as they thought, Dr. Ponytail said that they had run into some issues but had placed stints on either side of his ducts to help drain. THe good news, it's done and his eyes should get better and the tears will have somewhere to go.
Thankfully, Eliot stayed with his lovely Nana who is always there to help us. I really don't know what we would do without her, Eliot was quiet while his twin was away and as Nana relates, missing his bro.

So, today, quiet and restfulness.