Moments to Remember

As I walked Little Girl out of her last day of preschool (my last day of preschool) on Friday, we got literally about 20 seconds out of the gate and were on the sidewalk in front of her school when Little Girl exclaimed, "Awwwww, I miss my people!"

I reminded her that she'd see one of those school friends that very night at a function at our church!

Her Socialness leaving preschool forever:

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My girls had dance recital pictures on Saturday morning and I was very nearly in tears over the stress of getting TWO girls into hair and makeup and costume with a time deadline.  Two girls with totally opposite hair, I might add!  My bathroom was declared a disaster in the aftermath of it all, but we GOT IT DONE!  And other moms even complimented my girls on their hair and makeup -- amazing when I felt so inadequate doing it!!

This picture is called, "Big Sister Trying To Get Little Sister to Be Still so I Could Snap a Picture Before the Real Pictures!"

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I had to have an outpatient surgical procedure today, nothing serious, just a crazy situation with a stone in my salivary gland.  I know!  Who knew you could get stones there?!!  Well, me, I knew because I've had it since college when a spot under my chin suddenly began swelling up huge when I ate.  My roommate insisted it was the strangest thing she'd ever since and I had to got to the doctor.  That is where I first learned about salivary gland stones.  He told me a few things I could try to get it to go down and if it didn't I'd need surgery.  He said it was nothing serious.  The issue disappeared within a few days and all was normal after I ate.

This pattern of my salivary gland doing it's swelling thing for a few days and then returning to normal came and went once or twice a year for the next 17 years of my life.  But it was never a big enough issue to worry much over.

Until a few months ago, when it swelled up larger than ever and wouldn't go down!  My tongue got all tingly and I worried it would begin restricting my airway.  I Googled (because that is my first source for all things medical) the problem and doctors to see about it and found there was one doctor in my area who was doing a new procedure of removing the stones without removing the whole salivary gland which has been the only option for years.  That doctor was able to prescribe medicine to get the swelling to go down, he did CT scans confirming what we already knew and he warned I needed the surgery or the problem would just keep recurring and probably get worse as I got older.

Today I had the procedure, and the stone was in fact removed, all 4 mm of it, which was an impressive size to my doctor who has done this many times before.  Well, "Go big or go home, right?!!"

Hold on because I really am approaching the point of the story.  I had to have general anesthesia and various other loveliness but was out of the hospital before lunchtime and it seems I will be able to return to normal activities tomorrow or the next day.  But, my husband had complete kid duty today.  By himself!  Packing lunches (I had to be at the hospital super early), getting them to school, swim practice (even manning the day at swim practice where the swim shop came to sell team swim suits and all 4 of our kids needed a new suit!), dinner, baths, and bedtime (conveniently I was told at the hospital not to go up or down stairs for the rest of the day)!

But the classic part came when we were having dinner, my husband was lamenting that he forgot to bring home his work computer on Friday and there was something key he couldn't work on today,  the 11 year old replied with, "But you probably didn't have time anyway since you were replacing Mommy today."

Without missing a beat, my 7 year old son said very matter-of-factly, "Mommy can't be replaced."

And thus he secured his spot as my favorite child.  Kidding but in all seriousness my husband really put forth an amazing effort today!  He even signed the 3rd grader's agenda which I've been mostly forgetting to do for the better part of the last 4 weeks.  But, I'm still putting it down in the books as a comment to remember forever, "Mommy can't be replaced."