Taking care of mommy

Natalie underwent close to a 3-hour ear surgery at Mercy Hospital on Wednesday to help fix life-long problems she's had with her inner ears. It's the second mastoid surgery on her right ear and hopefully the last. She had her first when she was 14. she's 28 now. If she needs one when she's 42, we'll know something's fishy going on.

She's not in a lot of pain (or isn't showing it), but will have to follow some strict orders over the next several weeks from her doctor to make sure this surgery is as successful as it can be. Those include: not blowing her nose AT ALL for three weeks and not lifting anything over 10 pounds during that same period. (If you're wondering, Jasper P weighs approximately 25 pounds.)

Anyway, she wouldn't let me take a photo of the wrap the doctor put around her ear/head, but it just looked like a big, white eye patch over her ear. Jasper thought it was neat and, for the last two days, has been talking about mommy's 'hat.' He even went to get his own hat this morning when he woke up, so he could be more like mommy.

When we got home tonight I think J could tell Nat wasn't feeling the best. So he gathered a bunch of his books on the bed and took care of her by reading to her. (As you can see, Cozmo also wanted to help.)

I tried to joint them but J essentially kicked me out of the room, so I had to sneak these photos.

He caught me once and was none too pleased. He scolded me with his patented 'NO! ... Dah-deeee', which he's getting pretty darn good at saying.

Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes and a special thanks to Vicki for the food and watching J Wednesday, Melissa for the food, the Smiths, Swallows and Parrinos for the fruit basket and Paul and Debbie for taking Jasper Friday night.

Thanks!