The Bybee Chronicles: Christmas

We had another great Christmas this year at the Bybee house! I'm glad to report it was fairly low key and we were able to enjoy some time at home together. Shane and I were both off work last week so we spent alot of time with Grayson and tried to find some time for ourselves on the two days we were able to take him to daycare.

On Christmas Eve we started some of our new family Christmas traditions. Gray may be alittle young for them, but we wanted to get started on the right foot and do some things that he might enjoy as he gets older. We baked cookies for Santa and had a nice family meal together. Then we had him open his Christmas Eve gift that included some new pajamas and a Christmas book that we read together that evening. This year we selected a classic, "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Then we sat down and watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (the original Dr. Seuss version, of course).

Christmas morning all of the gifts from Santa were sitting in front of the tree waiting for Grayson to open. We were not sure how he would handle opening gifts but he did a great job. He figured out he needed to rip the paper and work his way into the box. Each time he saw what was beneath all the brightly colored wrapping paper, he let out a big "Ooohhhh" and his eyes got real big. He took the time to play with each gift and we almost had to force him to go to the next gift. Each one captured his attention so much that he didn't seem to care about the other packages that still needed to be opened. Shane and I had to stop ourselves from trying to push another present in his face because we want him to really enjoy each gift as he opens it and not try to rush through them. His big gift this year was a Radio Flyer Tricycle that was sitting in front of the tree with the presents. Between opening gifts, he kept going back to the tricycle trying to get on it. From his expressions and interest in all of his gifts, I would say Santa did a great job this year. We spent the rest of the day playing with his new toys and preparing for his surgery the next morning.

The day after Christmas we woke up early and took Gray to Cook's Children in Plano for his tubes. I was not too nervous because I knew it would be an easy procedure but I was not all too excited about seeing Gray disoriented and confused when he woke up from the anesthesia. After waiting for an hour, they took us back to a room where they gave Gray some silly juice to relax him and a pain reliever. Within a couple of minutes, he was asleep in my arms. The nurse took him from me and Shane and I were sent to the lobby for about 5 minutes before being put in a consulting room. While the nurse was writing our name on the door, telling us the doctor would be with us shortly, he came around the corner and said he was all done. The doctor said Grayson did great and there was alot of fluid and mucus in his ears but he was able to clear it out. He told us Grayson was starting to wake up so we should be able to see him shortly. We continued to sit in the room for a couple more minutes and we heard Grayson's cry. The nurse was wheeling him by our room so she knocked on the door and we followed her. Grayson was lying on the bed with his schnoolie just sort of looking around. Once we got to a post-op area she picked Grayson up and handed him to me. Not once did this kid cry. Everyone kept telling us how their kids cried for 10-30 minutes when they woke up from anesthesia. The nurses kept referring to him as "not normal" because he handled everything so well. After a few last minute instructions we were free to go and headed home to give Grayson some breakfast. The rest of the day he was laughing and running around as if nothing happened that morning. We have to administer drops in his ears twice a day and was also told this will make him uncomfortable. Needless to say, he isn't phased by it and just lies there. We feel like we can already tell a difference. It seems like he can hear better and I feel like he has been talking more and saying more since the surgery.

Friday night we had Christmas at my brother's house with my family and then Shane's family came in on Saturday to stay the night. Shane's sister flew down from Oregon and stayed with us until Monday so we got to spend an extra day with her. Overall we had a great week and a memorable Christmas!