Oh, Elsa.

I've probably used that post title before.

And I may have said this before too...  But Elsa is either my easiest child, or my most difficult child- by a large margin!

 

 

A few weeks ago I scheduled haircuts for the entire family.  As always, Elsa wasn't in need of a haircut, but I didn't want her to feel left-out so I let her get a trim.

I've never met anyone that grows hair as slowly as Elsa does!  She's almost 4 years old and her hair is only to her jawline.  And as it's gotten longer-ish, it's been losing its curl.  Sniff, sniff.

Three days after her haircut, I was getting the kids ready for bed.  They were all bathed.  I was finishing up a load of laundry, and Cohen ran back in to the bathroom; to get in to some sort of mischief, I'm sure.

I asked Elsa to get Cohen out of the bathroom, and to close the door.

She did.

Only, she stayed in the bathroom.

As I folded clothes I had the thought, that I ought to check on her.  But I dismissed it, because Elsa usually doesn't get in to much trouble.

 

The next thing I knew, Elsa walked out of the bathroom, and she had a HUGE smile on her face.  You could tell she was proud of herself.

I took one look at her, and the look on my face was pure horror.  I said, "Elsa!  What did you do?!".

 

It wasn't the reaction she was expecting.  At all.

In hindsight, I wish I would have done things so differently.  I get a big-fat Mom "Fail" for the way I handled it.

Elsa said to me, "I wanted to look beautiful", and she started to cry alligator tears.

Clearly, she wasn't doing it to be naughty.  She thought she was making herself look pretty.

 

But all I could think was; why her?!  Why, the child that has the most slow-growing hair ever?

It was a pretty good chop-job.
But we're making the best of it.
Elsa's been wearing a lot of head bands.  And as much as I didn't want her to have bangs...  It looks like she'll be rocking them for the foreseeable future.

On June 26th, Elsa went in for surgery to correct her lazy-eye.
Dr. Hoffman (the best pediatric ophthalmologist in the state) did Cohen's eye surgery.  But, when you're the best, your waiting list is forever long.  So, we've been taking Elsa to see Dr. Dries, he's in the same practice as Dr. Hoffman; and is probably the 2nd best pediatric ophthalmologist  in the state.  His waiting list is ridiculously long too; but we caught a break; and managed to get Elsa in to see him because I called at the same moment that they had a cancellation.

This is Elsa's 2nd surgery.  Her first, was having her adenoids out.
And this time, things went much more smoothly.
She was all smiles before the surgery.

It is still awful to hand your child off to the anesthesiologist; no matter how many times you do it, I think.  Elsa's anesthesiologist said that Elsa did really well, until they went to put the gas mask on her.  Then, Elsa freaked out.
I hate thinking about how scared she must have been.  And that her Mommy wasn't there for her!

The surgery lasted almost two hours.
Initially, I thought that they were only going to do surgery on one eye.  But Dr. Dries explained that they had to do surgery on both eyes, to make sure that they tracked evenly.

There were a few things that were different, this time around, once my child was in recovery. 
The past two times that we've been to PCMC for surgery, they have only let one parent go back to recovery.  But this time, they let both Nick and me go.
And blessedly, this time I didn't hear my child screaming bloody-murder; the moment I walked in to the recovery wing! 
As I walked up to Elsa's bed, I could hear her whimpering.  But she wasn't crying.  She also didn't want to open her eyes.
The entire three hours that we were in recovery Elsa kept her eyes closed.  She was a total champ.  She ate an entire bowl of macaroni and cheese (which I fed to her, because her eyes were closed); and drank a ton of juice.

The surgery went perfectly.
She will still have to wear glasses.  But her lazy-eye is gone.

When Elsa finally did get around to opening her eyes....  The inner corners of both eyes were blood-red.
Elsa had a lot of visitors after the surgery.  We felt very loved.  My visiting teachers, Lee Richmond, and Kristie Pearce brought us dinner that first night.  And my next-door-neighbor, Wendi Pehrson brought me dinner the following night.  We were spoiled.

Brian and Jenny also came over to see Elsa.
Jenny sat down on the couch.  And Elsa climbed up next to her, and got right in Jenny's face.  Then Elsa said to Jenny, in a scary/raspy voice. "I have red eyes".
It was creepy.  And funny.

Elsa's eyes looked worse, before they looked better.  The tissue around her eyes was very swollen on days 2 and 3, after the surgery.
Getting Elsa to take the oral pain medication was difficult, she didn't want to do it.  And putting the antibiotic & steroid drops in her eyes 3 times a day was even worse.  She fought us every time.  I'm glad we only had to do it for 7 days.

It's been two weeks since the surgery, and she is 100% back to (her) normal.

Every one of my children is a blessing. 

 

Elsa will always be known as my "angel baby".  There was never a baby more easy-going and perfect as her.  Lately, she only seems to know how to speak in "whine"; and it's been making me crazy!  But, on the flip side; she has also been taking on more traits that are common in eldest children.  Reagan's ASD (formerly known as Asperger's); means that she struggles with being empathetic, and responsible.  Elsa is so sweet, and loves taking care of Cohen.  I marvel at how forgiving Elsa is toward Reagan.  A lot of the time, Reagan will act-out and focus her anger on Elsa.  But Elsa never holds a grudge, Reagan is her favorite playmate.

I love this girl, more than words can say.