Another Ear Update

Wesley and I have just arrived back from the Ear Specialist. Everything went really well.

It seems that right now Wesley's ears are constantly infected. They are infected right now but the doctor didn't want to give me another antibiotic because they're not doing anything anyway. When he found out that we have an older child without any ear problems he asked me if we want to wait and see if Wesley gets better on his own or if we want to proceed with tubes. We had already discussed this and we knew we didn't want to wait around. Everyone we've talked who has kids with tubes has told us how much of a difference it has made. We don't want to mess around with his hearing or speech development so we want to go ahead with the tubes. The doctor felt that was a wise decision.

The surgery will happen on March 25th at 8:15 am. We need to be at the hospital at 6:15 (yikes!). He explained that there are complications in 5% of cases so hopefully we'll be in the 95% there. We're feeling pretty good about this at this point, we just hope he's not in too much pain until the surgery if he's not getting any more medication before then.

Separation Anxiety Anxiety

We are currently experiencing a common parenting problem with Wesley that we were fortunate to have bypassed with Darcy. Separation anxiety, we are learning, can be a terrible thing. I guess we got off scott-free once and we can't expect that to happen both times.

Whenever we left Darcy with a babysitter, she was really excited. In fact, she would cry when we got home because the party was over. This is certainly not the case with Wesley. If I even go to the bathroom he'll scream and cry. Imagine the chaos if I actually need to leave the house and leave him in someone else's care! It's horrible.

We were really worried when we left on our cruise in the fall but he did fine then and we hoped the worst was behind us. I don't know if it was Nick's time away in January or what, but things have definitely gotten worse again over the past few weeks.

Every second Wednesday night we have a half an hour time frame between when I need to go to Kids' Club at church with Darcy and when Nick gets home from work. A very kind lady from our church (who Darcy loves to have babysitting) just lives around the corner and she has agreed to come and watch him on those weeks. As soon as she walks in the door, he freaks out. He knows what's coming. As Darcy and I are getting ready to go, he is screaming and clutching onto me for dear life. It's heartbreaking. Out the door we go, though and he has to wait until Nick comes home. Last Wednesday, Nick could hear the screaming as he rode his bike into the driveway. It's winter, all the doors and windows were closed and Nick could still hear the screaming. Apparently there was an ear-piercing screech when Nick came in the house too. Wesley hadn't stopped crying for the entire half hour. Willow tried every trick in the book (she has 5 children of her own and I've lost track of how many grandchildren she's got) and she couldn't get him to settle down. Then, when Nick got settled in, Wesley stopped crying and walked to the door to pick up Willow's boots and purse. The message was clear, "It's time for you to go now!"

On Sunday, Willow and her husband were sitting behind us in church. Wesley greeted her like she was his old friend and was laughing and smiling at her. She put her hands out to see if he would come to her though, and he jumped back into Nick's arms.

So we're really not sure what to do about this. Do we keep leaving him in other people's care when it's freaking him out. I can't stay in the house 24-7, so what do I do? I won't be able to lead Kids' Club with him there so taking him isn't an option. Also, Nick and I would like to go out on our own from time to time and that is next to impossible for us, without importing babysitters from out of town (grandparents or aunts and uncles). We were given movie gift certificates for Christmas 2007 that we didn't use until after Christmas 2008 because it's so hard for us to leave him. We're waiting to see how long Christmas 2008's gift certificates take to get used.

If anyone has dealt with separation anxiety and has any tips, let me know. If you've got a good set of earplugs and are looking for something to do some weekend, we could use a babysitter!

Build A Bear Fun

A couple of years ago a new store called "Build a Bear" opened in our mall. In it, a child can build their own teddy bear and then spend a fortune dressing and accessorizing that bear. Darcy was pretty young when it opened so she had no idea what it was and we've just never drawn her attention to it in the mall. She never seemed to notice that there was a bear store there. Good!

Shortly before Christmas she started talking non-stop about Build a Bear. Apparently her good friend from school went and she told Darcy all about it. That had Darcy curious. So when we were doing some Christmas shopping one day I took her in there to have a look around. She immediately decided that she needed to build her own bear. I told her that if she got any money for Christmas then we would come back to Build a Bear and she could make a bear.

Sure enough, she got $25 from my grandfather so I told her that could be her Build a Bear money, we just had to find time to go. We went this past Monday morning. I have to say that although it is a bit pricey, Darcy had a blast. These people certainly know how to help kids have a fun experience.

Right inside the front door Darcy got to choose which shell of a bear she would choose. There were over 20 options, I'd say but I gave her the choice of the three cheapo models so her $25 would go farther. She immediately fell in love with one of them and gave it a big hug and determined it to be the cuddliest bear ever, even though she didn't have any stuffing yet. We had the option of putting a sound on the bear but I decided against that. Then it was on to stuffing. A worker did most of it, but Darcy had to step on a pedal, like from a sewing machine, to get the stuffing in her bear. Then she chose a heart to go inside her bear. She had to warm the heart up, make a wish and then seal it with a kiss before putting it inside the bear's body. The bear was then sewn up and we were off to the bath. There's a little bear bathtub where air blows over the bear so you can get rid of any extra fluff from the stuffing centre.

Then the fun begins! You get to shop for an outfit for your bear. They have all kinds of things to choose from. They will even let kids try several outfits on their bears until they settle on just the right one. Not her mother's daughter here, Darcy fell in love with the first outfit she tried on her bear. It's a cute little ballerina dress that came with little ballet slippers and a pretty little bow for her hair. I will say here that the bear itself was only $12 and the clothes were $13. Quite a little racket they've got there.

Then we went to the computer station to name the bear and print her birth certificate. Darcy had already decided on the name before we left and her bear was officially named "Honey". Honey got her own condo (a box) and we were on our way. As we walked through the mall to do the rest of our errands, Darcy had a smile on her face from ear to ear. She was so thrilled to have this bear and she showed her to anyone who would glance in our direction. She even went on one of the dollar rides they have for kids in the mall and put Honey in her box in the seat beside Darcy. Funny.

Since we've been home, our new daughter (Darcy has decided that she and Honey are twin sisters) has settled in nicely with our family. An old toy drum has become her bathtub and Nick got in trouble for moving Honey off the couch the other so he could sit down. Apparently she needed to rest! She's barely left Darcy's arms and is being dragged around as I write this. An heaven forbid that Wesley tries to touch her! World war 3 will erupt then.

It appears that Darcy has made a friend for life!