Forget about being a soccer mom...I'm gonna be a wrestling mom.

We have had an eventful couple of days.

We went to the childrens hospital on Wednesday morning for Levi to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. It was such a tough decision for us. We went back and forth on whether or not we should have it done. I think I always knew it was the right thing, but it was just scary to think about him going in for surgery, and obviously I didn't want to do it if it wasn't absolutely necessary. But listening to him sleep every night, I knew it was what we had to do.

We were expecting the worst, but we were pleasantly surprised in the pre-op as Levi was very cooperative and happy. He even agreed to wear the hospital gown. He wasn't exactly happy about that part, but he did cooperate. He didn't even cry when they wheeled him away from us. I was so nervous in the waiting room, just praying my heart out.

The surgery went great. It lasted about 45 minutes, which seemed like an eternity to me. I was so relieved when the surgeon came out to the waiting room after surgery and said Levi's adenoids and tonsils were both huge. That really affirmed our decision. We had to wait about another hour to see him, which seemed like more than an eternity.

They finally came and got us as they were wheeling Levi into his recovery room where they said we would spend about 4 hours. Or so they thought.

Levi was so happy to see us and just wanted me to hold him. He seemed to be in so much pain and was a bit delirious. The fun part began when it was time for the nurses to give Levi his medicine. Let's just say that he wasn't very happy about it. It literally took Michael and I plus 2 nurses to hold him down so that the medicine could be forced into his mouth. It was absolutely terrible. Poor Levi's throat hurt so badly that he didn't want to swallow a thing. One of the nurses said that she had been a pediatric nurse for over 40 years and had never seen a child protest quite so much. They kept commenting on how strong he was and then the other nurse said to me, "Have you ever thought about getting him into wrestling?" NO! I have not, and I don't plan to think about it. A future of watching my son roll around on mats in tight clothes doesn't sound appealing to me.

The nurses hadn't been able to get Levi to drink anything, but they thought maybe we would be able to convince him. They definitely don't know our Levi. You can't convince him of much once he's made up his mind. So the next several hours were spent with nurses tempting Levi with every fun drink they could imagine. Michael and I just shook our heads, knowing that nothing would probably work. If chocolate milk and sprite weren't going to work, nothing would. Levi would drink when he was ready, and he definitely wasn't ready yet.

We realized later that evening that we weren't going home, and they admitted us into an overnight room. Levi was completely out of it and in pain. Because of the risk of his throat bleeding and dehydration, we couldn't go home until he was drinking and taking his meds. Thankfully, my mom was at home with Ben and Graham.

Levi slept most of the night, and we had many more battles with medicine. I am sure that there are Levi medicine stories being told around town by sweet, innocent nurses who had to witness the battles. Poor things.

Levi woke up Thursday morning and seemed to be feeling a little better. We got him to take a few sips and then came the climax...he took his medicine without a fight. The nurse was so excited that she went and got him a "prize". I expected a little trinket or sticker, but she brought back a brand-new, still in the box, big truck. Levi looked at her, smiled and mouthed "thank you". We decided that it was time for us to go home. Although he still hadn't met the requirements to be released, we asked them to let us go because we thought he might do better at home.

And, yes, he sure has. He started drinking a lot better yesterday and even had a few bites of pudding and macaroni & cheese. He slept great last night and woke up happy today. He has spent most of the day watching movies and playing trains. He even played outside for a while and asked to ride his trike. Tonight he seems like his old self again. Well, maybe not quite that good yet. I think it will be a while before he's back to normal.

And now Levi is milking this for all its worth. "Remember Mommy, the doctor said I can have as much ice cream as I want," he told me. And all he wants to drink is Sprite and juice, neither of which we have ever kept here at the house. We are going to have some lovely habits to break! Ben is benefitting from his brother's surgery as well...juice boxes, popsicles, ice cream, mac & cheese, lots of movies. He owes his brother big time!

The next 10-14 days will be filled with lots of videos and ice cream. And since he's not supposed to participate in any strenuous activity, we'll try to keep the wrestling at a minimum.