Ear Tubes 2.0

“Bye, Mama!”

The sweet little voice of my sometimes-behaved three year-old echoed back to me from the front door as he and Oxbear left the house early that morning. It was about 6:30, and Yali had another date with the ear tubes at Cardinal Glennon.

He was already wide awake and back on the road an hour after surgery started. When I met them at ten o’clock to make the exchange, he waved to me from across the parking lot with his little backpack on his back as he walked towards me.

“Hi, Mama!”

He bounces.

During carpool, Yali napped on my shoulder, which happens every day I don’t give him a morning nap. It didn’t take long for Annie-Bea to relieve me. And she was ready to ward off anyone who was interested in taking him from her.

“Go back to your mom, Travis!”

“No, I can stay with Yali!”

“You shouldn’t be out here!”

“No, my mom said I could stay with Yali!”

Then Heidi hustled into the picture, dropping her backpack and lunchbox in a heap to claim her favorite little man.

“Annie-Bea, give him back! I only have a few minutes to stay out here!”

“I have to leave before you do though!”

One of the moms waiting in the hallway just shook her head and laughed. “It’s like he’s got his own entourage.”

He slept through the whole thing.