After much going back and forth with the doctors and the hospital, we've decided to have Nicky's surgery on Monday, 11 October.

It's considered outpatient surgery, but he'll have to stay in the hospital overnight (23 hours max, so it stays in the outpatient category). We'll go to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, and the surgery itself will happen around 7:30. Check-out will be on Tuesday morning. I'll have to stay at the hospital most of that time. Zack may sleep in Nicky's room with us Monday night, or he may stay with friends (still working that part out).

Nicky will be on bed-rest for the first week after surgery, then house restriction for the following week except for his post-op check-up. If there are no complications at that point, Nicky will be able to go back to school starting Monday, 18 October.

The week before surgery, we'll be going to Denver to meet Aunt Liz and Uncle Ken, then to Omaha to spend some time with Uncle Dan while he recovers from surgery of his own.

The boys are very excited about *three* plane rides, and are looking forward to seeing family. I turned the activity board into a one-month calendar, and a couple times each day we go over everything together. Nicky understands that his throat will hurt after being in the hospital, and we picked out tons of ice cream together. He also understands that he'll have to stay in bed and not get to go swimming or do other fun stuff. He's fine with all of that as long as he knows I'll be there with him. After looking at the calendar, he always asks if I'll stay with him in the hospital and stay with him while his throat hurts.

 

Remember all the things your parents said, but you swore you'd never say to your own kids? I can't count how many times I've said, "Because I say so!" to the boys recently. Worse, I'm getting their names mixed up. Sometimes I go through five names before I find the right one. I've started calling them both "Zicky" or "Nack" to make things easier. But that's nothing compared to the things I say to my kids that my parents never had to say:

 

Zack is starting Pre-Kindergarten tomorrow, 22 September. He's also starting a trial of Ritalin (actually, it's a generic Ritalin-like drug) to see if it helps with his hyperactivity. No one can really judge whether Zack's hyperactivity is due to organic causes, general developmental delay, or just his continuing adjustment to thousands of new things. The good thing about drugs like Ritalin is that they're diagnostic as well as therapeutic. If he responds to the drug by calming down and focusing, then he needs it and will continue taking it. If it has no effect, or winds him up, then we need to discontinue the medication and concentrate on behavioral solutions.

 

Zack at age four qualifies for the Federally-funded "get him ready to enter Kindergarten" program. If he were already five, he'd be stuck in no-man's-land between preschool and Kindergarten, too old for the first and not developmentally ready for the second. But the Federal program is designed for kids who don't speak English, or have other handicaps to learning, and is open to anyone with special qualifications who hasn't yet turned five. Between Zack's lack of English and Dr. Yuriy's recommendation for extra schooling, Zack qualifies. It's a half-day program, starting at 8:15 and ending at 11:00.

 

Since I still need to walk Nicky into his classroom every morning, it works out just about right. I'll take Zack with me to get Nicky to school at 7:45, then take Zack to his own school. With traffic and such, we should get there by 8:00 when the doors open.

 

Aunt Judy will pick Zack up from Pre-K at 11:00 and take care of him until 2:00, when it's time to pick Nicky up from Kindergarten. This gives Zack the best of both worlds -- socialization and exposure during Pre-K, then the one-on-one tutoring he needs with academics. And all of it works out great for the family, because I'll have all morning free every day to take care of work, and can then spend the afternoon and evening with the boys.