Recently in Anna Category
We went to the zoo this morning to have breakfast with the orang utans and we walked around a few of the other exhibits while we were there (including a stop to feed the giraffes!). Our membership expires in a couple of days and I don't plan to renew since we're not sure if we'll be here past June.
Henry wanted to look really nice for Santa.
We got to Tanglin a little early so we stopped for gingerbread men & babycinnos (for the kids) & coffee for the grown-ups.
Writing their lists.
"I want a MacBook Air and an actually fancy dress."
"I want a big fat stuffed dog and a bag of Skittles that when you eat 1 it grows back."
"I want a box of 100 chocolates."
The music teachers were playing music for the students when they came to school this morning.
These workers (perhaps moving someone in/out of the neighbourhood got some ice cream from the ice-cream-guy, too.
Anna & Henry are tired of cold & lukewarm things so they finally tried some warm/hot stuff at Al Ameen tonight (accompanied by frozen drinks, of course).
Anna's & Henry's recoveries have gone pretty well, and better than I had imagined but I didn't anticipate their food issues being what they turned out to be. They were instructed to drink lots of shakes and chew lots of chewy candy. They hated this the whole time and only wanted real food (of course I'm happy that that's what they wanted but it was difficult to convince them to do as they were instructed for the sake of proper healing! They have eaten a lot of bread with butter & jam but they crave toast (too harsh) or orange juice (too acidic). I guess it just proves the point that when you tend to want what you aren't allowed to have. And who would really think that a 4 & 8 year-old would complain about being told to eat candy and ice cream? I know one of Craig's strong memories from childhood was the orange sherbet he got to eat after he got his tonsils out (and he loves it to this day!).
Anna spent a long time today making videos of this bird flying in the playroom.
Anna & Henry have to stay home from school until tomorrow but they're both pretty bored of being home!
Henry was entertained when Anna's nose lit up like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at the follow-up appointment (Anna got to see when it was Henry's turn). They are both reluctantly eating but a (caffeine-free) frappuccino from Starbucks seemed to encourage quite a bit of swallowing & healing on the way home from this appointment.
Oh how I was dreading this day! Henry's surgery was scheduled for a couple of hours ahead of Anna's and we also had to get Sarah to a friend's house so she could go to school (and not have to hang out at the hospital all day). I took Henry early in the morning and Craig & Anna dropped Sarah off at her friend's house on their way downtown for Anna's appointment. Henry was amazing: he didn't know to be nervous about his operation so that was the good news. I hated the wait after I said goodbye to him (after he drifted off in the operating room) but I had the arrival of Anna & Craig to distract me a bit.
Anna was calm but I think she picked up on my nervousness about the day over the past few weeks where Henry did not. Henry came out and I went off to be by his side when he woke up and Craig got Anna into the operating room. Henry cried a bit when he woke up but went back to sleep after not too long. I kept waiting for a really horrible fight from him but I think he handled coming out of anaesthesia really well. Once he finally woke up, he was easily coaxed into eating and drinking enough to let him check out.
Anna woke up from the anaesthesia and was very angry and did not want to be told to eat and drink: she just wanted to GO HOME. Finally she accepted that she had to eat & drink before she could leave (and I suspect that the anaesthesia wore off a bit) and she did what she needed to do. Henry & I left first so we could be home when Sarah came home from school (the same friend & mom walked her home).
Recovering at home, one of the first things Henry did was ask to have the volume turned down on the game he was playing on his phone. He acted like he was totally comfortable but did have to be coaxed into eating & drinking to help his throat heal. Once Anna was home she seemed to "get" that she really did need to eat & drink a lot in order to promote healing.
I think Sarah was torn between being relieved that she didn't have to go through any of this personally and feeling a little slighted by the lack of doting and attention required to take care of a kid that didn't have surgery that morning.
