doctors and teachers and cookies...oh my!

On Friday, we had an appointment with Dr. H, Super Dude's surgeon at Duke.  In case we haven't mentioned it lately, we LOVE Dr. H.  He was instrumental in saving Dude's life - he performed Dude's primary diaphragm repair and the intestinal containment surgeries.  When we were on the brink of consenting to Dude getting a G-tube because of his feeding problems, Dr. H encouraged us to wait and give the Dude a little more time; he was right and saved the Dude from an unnecessary surgery.  It had been a year since we last saw Dr. H, so the visit was bittersweet.  

He thinks that Super Dude looks great and couldn't believe how tall he'd grown.  We've known the next surgery was necessary, so this appointment was short and sweet.  He told us what he'd do, we signed the consent forms and then he sent us to pre-op to get all of that done.  Dr. H was very amenable to having the ENT insert ear tubes during the surgery and said he'd contact the ENT to coordinate their schedules.  Now, we're just waiting on the phone call to tell us when to show up!  This surgery will last 2-3 hours and will involve creating an incision at the end of the last incision/scar, which will wrap around toward Super Dude's back and be about 3 inches long.  He'll be admitted and we're asking that people not visit as only 2 people are permitted in the room and that only leaves room for mommy & daddy!

After the surgical appointment, we had our first parent-teacher conference at Dude's preschool.  His teachers said they adore him and that he's a wonderful child.  He has a best bud in his class, and apparently the two can just look at each other and burst out in laughter.  The teachers gave us some tips on potty-training, which we hope to work on soon at home.  The only issue they have with Super Dude is that he sometimes steals food from his classmates at lunch.  I find this hysterical since he was tube-fed the first year of life, and we tried so hard, for so long, to just get him to eat ANYTHING!  

Tonight we made cookies and I let Super Dude help put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet.  I turned around to check the oven for a quick second and when I turned back around, the Dude was in the same exact spot, but there was a cookie on the sheet with a bite taken out of it!  Sneaky little monkey!