Details, Details, Details....

When we were in Utah for Jessie and Taylor's wedding, Zack slept in the bed with me and Ben one night. That was when I learned of his AWFUL snore. It prompted me to look into his mouth to see what in the world was going on. Well, I saw that his throat was pretty much entirely tonsils. I figured he had picked up tonsillitis or something. However, he acted the same as always the next day and had no fever. It turns out that his tonsils are truly always that enormous. Well, the wheels in my brain started turning and I decided to google "tonsils, speech, and drooling." Zack has never been able to pronounce blends like "Sh" or "Ch." He is very difficult to understand and gets frustrated frequently when we don't understand him. He also is my only child to drool all the way until his third birthday. My google results gave me confidence that Zack's drooling and speech impediment are both directly related to his tonsil size.

As soon as we got back to Virginia I scheduled Zack to meet with a pediatric Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. Before even looking into Zack's throat, the Doctor said he was certain he was going to see large tonsils, because he said it sounded like Zack was "trying to talk around a potato in the back of his throat." When he looked into Zack's throat, he confessed that Zack's overgrown tonsils were the most severe that he had seen in a child of Zack's age.
He also looked into Zack's ears and asked me if Zack had lots of ear infections. Well, Zack has had more than my other kids have had, but Maddie has only had one and I think Andrew has only had three.

The doctor explained that Zack's tonsils and adnoids were so large, that they were pushing into his ears as well. Their large size prevents his ears from adequately draining fluid, so his tonsils have also caused hearing loss! I was shocked. I was prepared to hear about the drooling and speech, but I never imagined that my little guy had lost some of his hearing because of these monsters.

So, Zack is scheduled to have his tonsils and adnoids out and to have tubes put into his ears. These surgeries should restore his hearing loss, allow him to speak clearly, resolve his sleep apnea and snoring, and stop his drooling. The doctor also predicted that Zack would be less hyper, because he would be able to sleep better at night and wouldn't be so wired with exhaustion. This all sounded good to me and provided a lot of insight onto why Zack has been such a difficult child. So, on November 29th Zack will be headed to the hospital to have his surgeries and to stay for a day of observation. I'm dreading the surgery day and the two weeks of recovery, because I am a bit nervous about Zack being under anesthesia, and about possible bleeding side effects. I'm confident he'll be fine, and I am excited for his improved quality of life post-recovery.

So, those are some details of life in the world of Zack. He turned three on October 27th and had several parties. His birthday celebration at preschool overlapped with the school Halloween party, so he was in heaven. He was so excited to don his Robin the Boy Wonder costume which he thinks is "Superman."




Maddie was able to join Zack's preschool party for a little while. Why? Let me share those details with you. After dropping Zack and Andrew and cupcakes off at preschool, I swung past the bank, then remembered Maddie had left her homework on our dining room table, so Mylie and I went to the elementary school and dropped off the homework. I return home and only have time to change Mylie's diaper when the phone rings. I see it is a call from Maddie's school, so I pick it up and hear the school nurse say, "Mrs. Burton? Uh, you are not going to believe this and I can't believe I am having to say this, but.... {big pause, deep breath}...Maddie has an eraser stuck in her nostril and I have tried to get it out, but I am afraid I might make it worse. I think she is going to need to go to the emergency room to have it removed."

So, of course I call Ben and tell him to race his tail end over to meet me at the preschool and handle this situation and I leave to pick up Maddie so we can rush over and get Zacky into his costume in time for his party and parade.



Of course, the eraser would be GREEN! After some drama, the nostril is relieved of its "foreign object" at the pediatrician (where Ben was smart enough to take her instead of the ER). The eraser comes out when Maddie plugs the other nostril and blows her nose. Well, if this seems like the obvious thing to have Maddie do first, let me assure you that the school nurse tried this method with Maddie, I tried this method with Maddie, and Ben tried this method with Maddie...all to no avail. The school nurse suggested that Maddie plug her other nostril and that I cover her mouth with mine and try to blow the eraser out. Gross. There is no way I was going to do that, I mean it would take some pretty life and deathy sort of situation for that notion to ever be even entertained in my mind. So, it turns out that to get an eraser out of a nostril you really only need to shell out a co-pay to a pediatrician if you want results. In my mind, it was the old, stuck pickle jar lid scenario. OK, I made that up, but you know when the lid is stuck and three people try to open it and the thing is not budging and then the fourth one picks up the jar and effortlessly twists off the lid. Well, we loosened that eraser and the pediatrician with her fat wallet gets the credit...

Why am I the mom of the second grade GIRL that gets bored in class and shoves an eraser up her nose to pass the time and amuse her friends? When I asked Maddie that question her answer did not make me feel any better: "Well, Mom, the eraser came out fine every other time I've done it...."

Details, details, details...

Friday night was Trunk-or-Treat and a chili and pie cook-off at our ward. It was fun and had a great turn out, despite the buckets of rain that fell outside. The kids ended up trick-or-treating from table to table in the cultural hall. Well, its all about the candy anyway right?







Saturday night we had a little party for Zack. My dad and Brooke's family went with us to the Burger King playland. Hmmmm, that reminds me that recently Zack brought me a copy of the Book of Mormon and asked me if I could read him some of the "Burger King." Poor confused guy. Anyway, after dinner we went back to our house and Zack opened lots of fun presents like toy cars and motorcycles and fire engines. Zack LOVES things with wheels. My Dad got him a Sesame Street garage and ramp sort of thing, which was a big hit.






Sunday night was another party for Zack with his Burton grandparents and aunts and uncles, since they weren't around on Saturday. He made out like a bandit yet again. However, I did have to cut out a really big chunk of the cake because Zack drooled on it while blowing out his candles. Not much could serve as a better motivator to pass on a slice of birthday cake as the picture below...



On Halloween, Andrew had his class Halloween party and parade and that was fun. I decided to bring Bracken and leave Zack with Brooke because Bracken doesn't run away like Zack does. Bracken also goes to the same preschool, but he and Andrew go on different days.





My kids loved going trick-or-treating and scored more loot this Halloween than any other year. This was the first year that they complete the full neighborhood (which consists of only three streets). When Andrew got home and put his candy on the table, he said, "My hands feel so weak!" I was impressed by this observation. Andrew had learned the "Trick or treat smell my feet" full rhyme from someone and said it at almost every door, despite my reminders that we only say "Trick or treat" and "Thank you! Happy Halloween!"






Mylie seems like such a big girl now. She walks really well and likes to climb onto stuff. She also is starting to say more. She likes to be silly at dinner to make her siblings laugh. She loves jabbering into her toy phones (and tv remotes). We like to listen to KT Tunstall in the car, and Mylie likes to sing the "No" part of the song about the big black horse and the cherry tree. In fact, I've noticed that she likes to sing the chorus around our house as she plays. I also just discovered that we can put her hair into cute little pig tails. Of course, she HATES it because it isn't a feeling she is used to, but it looks so dang cute.







Well, those are our details...