Jeckel and Hyde?

Boy, today is finally over and am I, for one, ever glad for that! Today was the day that Kurtis was scheduled to have the tubes put in his ears - and yes, it was done -which was the reason for a lot of the things that happened around here between midnight of last night and midnight -or slightly after midnight, tonight.

This is Kurtis - the way he normally is - sweet, smiling - those big blue eyes that just melt your heart away.

Kurtis had a really rough night and day today - and that is probably an understatement if you were to ask him about all this and if he could talk!

He has his own little routines - one of which is that he does tend sometimes to keep late hours - like his grammy often does too -although he's been getting a bit better about going to sleep earlier lately (like 1 a.m. as compared to 3 or 4 a.m.) But, to get him to go to sleep -there's where things were really messed up for him last night because generally, he has at least one, sometimes a couple bottles of milk before he finally drops off into dreamland. And last night, although we tried our best to really "overfeed" him throughout the evening, in hopes that he would crash and sleep before midnight, that didn't happen. So, as a result, he was a very unhappy camper -also a very tired one too - who didn't fall asleep until about 3:15 this morning. The reason it took so long - he couldn't have any more bottles of milk after midnight until well after having had the ear-tube procedure done today.

And this picture, to the left, is pretty much what Kurtis looked like, acted like for the bulk of the day!

So, from about 11 p.m. last night until he finally fell asleep by my rocking him (for the umpteenth time, I might add) he was whining and fussing and sometimes, pretty loud too about his displeasure. About 12:30, he was fussing but not all that bad and I was trying to ignore him then, in hopes he would lay down, fall asleep and all would be fine, but his dad decided to come down and check in on him and when he did, I happened to overhear Bill say "Daddy will go get you a bottle buddy!" and I sat bolt upright and yelled at him "Don't give him a bottle as he's not allowed anything after midnight tonight!" Well Bill claimed he knew nothing about that and I insisted and he went back upstairs muttering about "going to go ask Mandy about this." Since he didn't come back downstairs, I knew she had set him straight on what was what then. Sometimes, the things that go on here that he doesn't pick up on absolutely amaze me but that would be fodder for several other posts I suppose.

So anyway, Kurtis didn't fall asleep as I stated above until 3:15 a.m. but the bad thing there is that Mandy had to get him up at 5 a.m. to get him dressed to take him to the hospital as they were scheduled to be there at 6:30 a.m. for the pre-op stuff and then, 8:30 for the actual procedure. You can imagine his displeasure then when she woke him up at 5 a.m. and started dressing him to go out - not happy, not happy at all, at all.

They returned home about 10 a.m. and from then until about 9 p.m. tonight, he must have been feeling the aftershocks or something like that from the procedure - not the good things anyway -and he was a regular little bear. Once in a while, Kurtis will get a bit contrary, fussy and difficult to deal with but most of the time, he is generally a pretty agreeable little fellow -smiles for all, snuggles up to you as soon as you pick him up.

That definitely was not him all day and most of the night tonight. And, I can completely understand his being very out-of-sorts as he lost all that sleep, no food either till late today and I'm sure the procedure had to create some type of discomfort for him today in his ears too.

But finally around 9 p. tonight, the tide seemed to turn and the smiles re-appeared. He seemed to have gotten his "sea legs" back as he was walking a lot better - earlier he was wobbly as all get out and looked a bit like a little drunk most of the time - when he wasn't having a hissy fit and screaming, crying that is.

He started seeming to get a bit fussy around 12:30 tonight -not drastic, just whimpering more than anything - but I picked him up and he snuggled up against me and after rocking him for about 10 minutes, put him back in his playpen, where he grabbed onto his fuzzy bear pillow and within five minutes, he was down for the count.

That was my Dr Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde day with Kurtis but this morning, when it came time to get Maya up and dressed for school, Bill and I both had a direct meeting then with Dr. Jeckyl and MRS. Hyde as Maya, upon realizing Mandy wasn't here to get her ready for school, decided to go into a major and massive meltdown for us!

And trust me - it was not a pretty sight to behold either! Sometimes, in retrospect, I could say it was humorous because of the things Maya does and says at times under conditions like that but that attitude about the meltdowns doesn't come to you when you are in the heat of the moment and boy, it was heated, for sure!

Mandy had laid out a little outfit for Maya to wear to school today and had chosen it because she thought it might make getting her dressed easier. Normally - had she been dressing her, it probably would have worked that way but with Bill, with me - it took a whole "nuther" turn.

From screaming and kicking and throwing the clothes - insisting that she NOT wear unneywears but rather a pullup (something I was willing to concede to just to keep some peace), it was a battle royale!

Maya began by crying, wailing, screaming how she wanted "Mommy dress Maya." And I was trying to do the impossible which is trying to explain where Mommy was and why she couldn't dress her for school. She wasn't hearing any of that about Mommy and Kurtis being at the hospital - no sirree - she was telling me "Gotta go wake Mommy up. Gotta get Mommy outta bed!" No Maya, Mommy isn't here - she and Kurtis are at the hospital. Her response eventually to that bit of truth was "Maya go to 'hopsible' with Mommy and Kurtis!"

The battle ensued, on and on for well over 30 minutes of the illogical versus the logical. Finally, I did get her dressed then came the fight to comb her hair. She left with having only a lick and a promise of the comb so looked a bit like a rat's nest there!

Getting closer to time for the van to pick her up, I started looking for her jacket. This kid has to be "color coordinated" too ya know - her rules, not mine - and I knew she was going to want her pink jacket but it was no where to be found. I sent Bill on a search and destroy mission cause she threw a nutty with me when I tried to put her blue jacket on her. He finally located the jacket down by the washer and dryer on top of the pile of clothes that were to go into the washer next. Thank goodness the jacket wasn't already in the washer or she'd probably still be standing here having a hissy fit with me! LOL

Got the jacket on her and we went outside - standing on the stoop in front of the house and since she generally is a sucker for compliments (to say Maya is vain - well it is quite an accurate description in one word there) so I started talking to her, telling her how Miss Pam (the teacher) was going to be telling her how pretty she looked today, her outfit was so cute and she was such a good little girl and all that ya know.

And, because she was holding my hand, being nice and polite and quiet, I thought I had the cat by the behind ya know. That is until she looked up at me and said "Grammy, don't say any more. Not. Another. Word!"

Kind of set me back a peg there, it did but I decided to follow her instructions then till the van arrived for fear of jinxing the rest of the process.

Getting her in the van turned out to be ok though as when she saw the other little guy who rides the van to school with her, she mellowed back very nicely. Got her all fastened in and then - pushing my luck I thought at first - I asked her if she was going to give Grammy a kiss goodbye.

And she did!

And all was well then -God was in Maya's heaven - and mine too - at that point in time. Any parent who has ever dealt with a four-year-old in a meltdown phase and has them turn back to the sweet child on them like that will know exactly what I mean there!

I had planned on posting some photos here tonight of Kurtis - something I haven't done much of in the past - and I happened to have two photos of him, one with him and his big beautiful blue eyes and all smiles and then another of him in a not so happy frame of mind too one day in the recent past. But Blogger decided that was not to be - no photos for you tonight it said! Just would not even open the icon to post the photos at all for me. So, for now - all you get is text.

Maybe tomorrow blogger will cooperate and I can go back in here and edit this post and put the pictures up for you to see little Kurtis too!

And now, I think I'll go relax and enjoy a nice cold beer! I deserve a chilled Coors tonight, don't
'cha think?