A Bona Fide Birthday-Day

Around my house your birthday was something very special. You got to choose the dinner for the evening, you got to do whatever you wanted (within reason), and you got gifts. I let Jason know when we got married that this was one tradition we would continue, I even gave them a special name: "Birthday -Days". There was even one Christmas when I gifted Jason with a coupon book filled with enough coupons for him to have one a month. The real point of them is that the whole day is dedicated to you - and they are wonderful. Today Abby got an undeclared Birthday-Day - she deserved it after the day she had yesterday.

Today began with Jason running to the store to stock up on all kinds of Abby goodies. He got yogurt, pineapple, a Winnie the Pooh cup and a Princess Belle cup, peanut butter eggs, popsicles, and even a couple of new movies. Since Abby was still a bit groggy, she and I snuggled in bed a bit longer. While we laid there we got talking about yesterday. I asked if she remember the bubbles. See, the wonderful staff at Mott even could make going off to surgery fun. I got to put on a wonderfully stylish white jumpsuit with a lovely blue hair cap and a charming mask - and since there are no pictures I will tell you that it was all quite fetching on me. Abby was fascinated that Mom was playing dress-up and she wanted her own outfit. Luckily, they had a cute little "dress" for her, that even had clowns on it. She was a bit hesitant to climb up onto that rolling bed with me. She had learned earlier in the evening that scary and painful things happened on beds like that, but that's when we pulled out the bubbles. She was game then. We told her we were a bubble train, and they wheeled us into surgery with me blowing bubbles the whole way.

I was surprised to hear that Abby remembered all of this. Along with the bubbles, she remembered that while in the operating room one of the doctors put Dora on the monitor for her to watch and that she got the special mask - the one that wasn't like everyone else's. I remembered everything in sharp detail, like the look of panic she sent me as the anesthetic began to take effect, and the nurses transferring her limp little body from my arms to the operating table, and walking out of the room - leaving my little girl in the hands of a team of nurses and surgeons, but I didn't expect her to remember quite so much.

Flashes of memories from yesterday came to me throughout the day today, so when she asked for another popsicle (after she'd already had three) I gave it to her. Still fresh in my head was the picture of her beautiful eyes looking into mine as five adults struggled to hold her down so they could see her hand. I saw her clearly as she fought them with all of her might, and screamed so hard that she broke numerous blood-vessels in her face. I wanted to give her the whole box of popsicles.

I don't know if she sensed that extra love that oozed out of us today, but all day she was in a wonderful mood. The only time she got cranky was when her pain medication began to wear off. She even wanted to get dressed up, in her pretty red dress, for her special visitors today. Mrs. D from my school came by to drop off a gift for the patient (The Muppet Movie complete with movie munchies), and Abby's teacher who came by to give her the cards the class made for her, and a small gift from herself. That's when it took all I had to hold it together. Seeing the darling cards her class had worked so hard to make, and the long hug that her teacher gave her brought home the fact that Abby was missed, and there were many people that were concerned for her.

Popsicle #3

Despite the fact that it is past her bedtime, we are letting her finish watching her show (and finish the fifth popsicle of the day) before hauling her off to bed - but that's allowable on a Birthday-Day.