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Today was the day. Rowan and I arrived at the hospital early this morning for his first cochlear implant. Despite waking up too early and not being able to eat, Rowan was amazingly well behaved and the entire day proceeded very smoothly. He was in surgery for about four hours and according to the surgeon, everything went better than expected. Rowan was discharged early this afternoon and although he isn’t feeling quite himself today, he is doing pretty well under the circumstances. As you can see in the video, by this evening, he was ready to start moving again: So what happens next? I have become very aware of how little is known about cochlear implants by the general public. Even those in the medical profession that don’t work in this specialty don’t know much about the device and how it works. I had to explain to each of Rowan’s nurses today (except for the one working with the surgeon) what the device was and how it worked. This is very understandable; two months ago I had no idea ...

It is birthday time at our house! We started the morning with the traditional birthday breakfast. Davin's favorite choice: pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. We spent the earlier part of the day getting ready for Davin's birthday party that afternoon. With each step of preparation, the anticipation mounted and at times I worried Davin's four year old brain might explode. He has been talking about his birthday since May 20th of last year and it was the main topic of conversation this past month. This year he understands better what it means to ask for something and he gave me a more specific list this year. At times it was dump trucks, cement trucks, and garbage trucks, but he recently changed to fire trucks and ambulances. As trucks were obviously on the brain, I made it the theme for his party. We had a car pinata, cars to race down our big hill, and a construction vehicle cake. Our friends came over in the afternoon for play time; after attacking the pinata, we...

Chris had the opportunity to go on a business trip to Brazil which sounded awesome until he learned it would be for three weeks. We bravely sent him on his journey where he got to see this: and eat this: and hang out here: but mostly do a lot of work. We missed him so much! While he was gone, I finished a project that we had started before he left. Our floor in the laundry room was rotting and needed new floor boards. Chris replaced the bad boards and finished just before he got on the plane. I painted, put down new tile, replaced the light fixture, and put up new shelves and hardware. We tried to have our own fun, going to parks, playing with friends, and enjoying having my mom's visit. However, we were so glad when Daddy came home. He came home with special surprises from Brazil as well. The boys were spoiled with full soccer uniforms from Chris's favorite Sao Paulo club team, Palmeiras. Chris brought some of our favorite treats from Brazil (at least those that would trans...

A few weeks ago, Chris jetted off to Brazil on business, leaving us for three weeks. My mom rescued us with a visit and we enjoyed the diversion. We had a great time showing her our new home and our new town here in Charlotte. Our favorite day was going to the Dan Nichols park where we rode a train, fed the ducks, played mini golf, mined for gems, and played in a splash yard. We headed over to the NC Transportation Museum to finish our boy day. We had a great visit with Grandma and we were sad to see her go. Thanks for the visit! We love you!

It was a happy coincidence that my mom’s birthday happened to be near Easter weekend. We started our trip with a visit to Temple Square. Mom gave us a tour of the Church History Museum where she volunteers as a docent and we saw the International Art Competition at the Conference Center. On Saturday the boys enjoyed the Fruit Heights City Easter egg hunt, a party with my cousins, and another hunt at the house. The Easter Bunny arrived after church the next day and left his famous trail of M&Ms for the boys to follow. They were happy to find a full basket at the end of the trail! Chris and I were honored to make Easter dinner on Sunday. We went with a Mediterranean theme and served roast lamb with tzatziti sauce, pitas and hummus, souvlaki, roast pears, and a salad. Chris did a great job with the meat and everyone enjoyed the meal! We had a great time playing with my family. As soon as we arrived at my parent’s house, Davin started talking about mini golfing with Grandpa. We had a ...

I asked my mom what she wanted for her 50th birthday and she replied: “my grandsons!” I sighed and told her some reason why we wouldn’t be there for her birthday while I giggled inside, knowing that she would get her wish. The trick would be keeping it a secret from Mom; we bought our tickets at Christmas, so we had months to wait for our visit. The list of people “in the know” was very short. The trick to a surprise is that the fewer lies you have to tell, the more believable it will be, and the fewer people lying, the better the surprise. Tiff bought a ticket as well and we choreographed our arrival so that our planes landed within minutes. Dad picked us up from the airport and we went to the Gateway Mall in downtown SLC. Dad told Mom that he had an idea for her birthday and he wanted her to meet him at the mall so that he could show her the gift and take her our to lunch, to which she happily complied. While Dad went to meet Mom at the Verizon store on the other side of the mall, we...

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in our ENT doctor’s lobby, waiting for Rowan to come out of surgery. He was having tubes put in his ears and it was apparent that I was not the only parent that day having the procedure done. I kept listening to other ENTs dressed in scrubs, telling their patient’s parents that the child was fine, “the fluid just oozed out of his ear for a long time, there was a lot of it. He’ll feel much better after this procedure. Your child should wake up soon.” It wasn’t long until my ENT came out of surgery to inform me of Rowan’s condition. “The procedure went well, he should be awake soon.” Probing him for the gory details, I asked: “Was there a lot of fluid?” “No, not too much. The audiologist will be out soon to discuss the results of her exam with you.” He smiled, leaving me feeling concerned that we had just put Rowan through a needless procedure. The audiologist soon followed and asked that I follow her into a smaller consultation room off of the main lobby. ...