Louis at the hospital

Little guy had his surgery on Monday. It was quite an experience for all but a few things made it a LOT more bearable: friends who watched our girls before and after school and made many treks (in the rain!) to take them to and from school, french friends who let us borrow their car (the hospital is in another town and doing the on foot/train/tram routine adds like 4 hours to the day), the hospital staff in the childrens' portion were super nice (except the people in the billing/"welcome" desk...ha!), and the fact that our french is a ton better than it was 5 months ago when we first talked to the dr. about having the surgery. Louis was a champ but it was still hard to see him out of it when the meds started to kick in before the surgery (and then crying as they took him away from us:(...and after the local anesthesia wore off at home he was in a ton of pain and cried all evening. Thankfully since then he's been a lot better and only is in pain when he coughs or we move him certain ways or touch the areas that are painful. So glad its over!

After the surgery (and after he finally shook off the last of the sleepy gas...while he was coming out apparently he was really crazy but Daniel was there, not me) Louis wanted to PLAY! There were a ton of toys right outside our "room" and he wanted to explore them all. He had no idea he'd just had major surgery! Since the local anesthesia was still in gear he wasn't in pain either, so while we waited the long hours until our release he played and played and played.

Here we are a few hours later almost ready to leave...mommy trying to get the boy to eat some "petite suiss" a half yogurt/half cheese like snack that french kids seem to like:). Here we're in the play room outside our room where we spent most of our time since we were sharing a tiny tiny room with another family who had a newborn with a broken leg and was trying to sleep!