Can you hear me now?

So, we're in for round #2 of tubes in the ears. Not for the same kid though. E's appointment with the ENT this afternoon resulted in scheduling surgery later this month, so she'll join her brother and millions of other kids with the equivalent of tiny plastic straws getting poked into her eardrums. This is exactly how I had to explain to her today what "getting tubes" meant. Explanations for 5 year olds require some imagination! She asked WAY more questions than F did before his surgery. Guess that's the difference between a 3-year-old and a much wiser 5 year old.


She's had numerous ear infections this past year and even though she's supposedly past the window where most kids' ears grow, stretch, grow at an angle, or whatever those other technical terms mean, she is still having some trouble. We discussed the 'wait and see' approach but ultimately I pushed for tubes because I don't want her starting kindergarten struggling to hear. Plus, I learned my lesson with F - I let the doctor convince me to wait and in the end, we should have done the tubes two years earlier with him. I think his speech and other issues would have worked themselves out earlier if he'd had tubes when he was much younger.

Anyway.

Along with putting in her new tubes, the doc is also taking out her adenoids. I have no idea where those are in her head, but I know tubes and adenoids commonly go together and he's convinced she won't snore anymore after those come out, so based on my and Eli's own history with ear and sinus issues, we're going with his recommendation on that. Recovery time is a few days and she should be feeling better and catching fewer germs in her ears. Just in time to start kindergarten with a whole new crop of germs from a whole new group of kids...

BTW, she wants me to add a note here to tell you that her outfit is from the high fashion runway of our local Cracker Barrel. Can you hear the hillbillie fiddle in the background?