Very early on, possibly since birth, Griffin has had a bump on the left side of his lip, on the inside. I didn’t notice it right away, but Tristen said it had been there pretty much since birth. The pediatrician said it was nothing to worry about, but it kept growing as he did. Since his brothers were twins, we decided this growth on his lip was an absorbed twin and named it Wesley, which is one of the names Tristen liked before we settled on Griffin.
When we brought it up again, the pediatrician said it was probably still nothing to really worry about, but he did say it might be what’s causes him to drool so much. I might have mentioned here before that he’s the droolingest baby I’ve ever known, and I’ve known a few babies.
Anyway, we got a referral to a dermatologist. It got checked out and it wasn’t cancerous or anything like that. This is bad of me, and I’m sure I could ask Tristen and she’d know (she’s practically a doctor, of course), but I can’t remember what it was the dermatologist said it is. It possibly came from trauma, and he was removed from his mother’s tum forcibly enough that his face was a bit bruised, so my guess is that’s what it was. It wasn’t harmful, and that’s the important thing, but it was recommended that we get it removed.
And that brings us to today.
Tristen took the day off work and took care of breakfast and watching all the boys for the most part this morning. Milly was here, it being Thanksgiving break. She and I walked the twins down to Torrie’s after breakfast. It was the first time I tried letting them walk. I won’t do that again for a while. We got about halfway before I picked them both up and carried them the rest of the way. They’re getting to be big boys so my arms were pretty tired by the time I put them down.
Milly was walking Pearl. Pearl belongs to Jan, a friend of Tristen’s from work. She and her husband, Scott, who it turns out knows a lot of obscure things that I’ve brought up in conversation, have a daughter, Kat, who is Milly’s age. They’ve hung out together a little bit. Anyway, Scott and Kat dropped Pearl off this morning, and Milly was walking Pearl as we were taking Fawkes and Phoenix to Torrie’s.
I mention all that because Pearl got away from Milly, who chased her down about a third of the street between our house and Torrie’s, and a little bit down Torrie’s street. (Torrie lives on a corner.) I’d have helped, but as I was carrying two toddlers in my arms, I was in no position to do so. Milly got Pearl back by the time we got to Torrie’s though.
The issue was that Milly was holding onto some plastic thing (maybe a treat holder?) that was attached to the leash. At some point as Pearl was pulling away from her, the plastic piece popped off.
Back at the house, Tristen had just put Griffin down for a nap. Because he’s only seven months old, nobody was expecting him to be very obedient if the surgeon told him to hold still while this growth was excised from his lip, so he was going to have to be sedated, and because of that he wasn’t allowed to have a bottle after 9:00 this morning. Fortunately he napped until a little after 11:00.
On top of everything else, Fin Fin developed a rash over the last week or so. (This is in addition to probably the mildest case of hand, foot, and mouth disease that he was at the tail end of when I took him in for his booster shots last Thursday.) Tristen had to take him to the pediatrician to get the green light that it wasn’t anything that was going to interfere with the surgery. We were told it’s eczema and to lotion him up twice a day.
After that Tristen had to waste some time until the surgery as there wasn’t much point in bringing him back home (the pediatrician’s office being within walking distance of the hospital) and she needed to keep him somewhat occupied.
Back on the home front, Milly went over to Torrie’s to do some crafts and hang out. I got a good bit of work done, mostly working on putting out a couple of Black Friday video promos for a client.
Tristen texted me at 2:36 to say that they were waiting to be called back and Griffin had fallen asleep, although she later told me it wasn’t for long. Not quite an hour later she sent a picture in a large group text of a happy baby in baby hospital clothes in a baby hospital bed. Tristen told me he had been really happy and smiley with all the people at the hospital, as he usually is. Tristen did a FaceTime and Milly (who had come back by then and had been playing Minecraft, playing with Pearl, and reading Divergence) and I got to talk to Griffin a little.
Just before 4:00 a nurse came and got Griffin. Tristen didn’t realize they were taking him back right then and was sad that she didn’t give him a kiss. She got a little upset, just because it was scary to have your baby taken away and, normal procedure or not, not be with him. I know how she felt. I felt kind of powerless not being around at all. If it weren’t for the timing of everything being a little nebulous and someone needing to get the twins at some point, I’d have been there too.
Tristen asked me last night if I was nervous about it. I told her I didn’t really feel nervous, but protective in a way. The only time any kid of mine has needed any kind of real medical attention (aside from the twins staying in the NICU because they were early) was when Milly chipped a tooth and had it fixed, and that didn’t involve cutting anything away from the body. I just wanted to shield him from needing to have anything done at all, especially as an innocent little baby who has no idea what’s going on.
21 minutes later, at 4:23, Tristen texted everyone to say that Griffin was fine, everything went fine, and he had three dissolvable stitches on his lip. She wasn’t with him yet, but she would be soon and she would be able to give him a bottle when he woke up.
Back at home, I went to get Fawkes and Phoenix right at 5:00. I let them play in the backyard when we got back. Milly and Pearl came out too. Tristen called and said she was on the way. I was planning on picking up a pizza or something, but she said it was getting a little late for that, so I just heated up some chicken nuggets for the main dinner course.
I held Fin Fin for a bit when he got home. When Milly came up to him he smiled, and Tristen almost cried. She said it was the first smile he’d given anyone since the surgery, even though people at the hospital were messing with him. He was a little out of sorts, obviously.
We did baths for all the boys and put them to bed, which is a bit of an ordeal these days. Fawkes and Phoenix are always so hyped up when they get out of the bath, running around naked and falling on their mattresses and stealing pacifiers from each other. It can take them a bit to settle down.
Milly, Tristen, and I watched the new “live action” Lady and the Tramp. It was alright. I understand the cultural insensitivity and all, but I’ll be honest and say I was a little disappointed that the Siamese cats were rappers, even though the movie took place in the very early 20th century.
It was a very progressive town they lived in too, as nearly every couple was interracial and there were women working in the railroad yard. I mean, I’m all for inclusivity and all, but the historian in me chafes at inaccurate depictions like that. I mean, I say that while discussing a movie in which dogs talk to each other, so take it for what it’s worth. If they wanted to do that though, why not just update the whole movie?
Going to bed was a little delayed. Thinking Pearl would whine if left out by herself, we decided to let her sleep in our bed as she does at her own home. But Magic, our cat, was in our room. He jumped under the bed when she got in it, and we had a hell of a time getting him out from under there. I eventually took Pearl back to the living room and Magic came out and sat on the bed after a few minutes.
But then Griffin woke up, so Tristen put him in bed with her. Magic got in the boys’ room when she got him though. I went in to get him out (and plug Griffin’s camera back in), but if you don’t give our bedroom door a little extra pull when you shut it, Magic can push against it and open it. Tristen tends to forget this, so Magic ended up back in our room. I came and got him out and he made his way to the living room, where the two animals have coexisted by largely ignoring each other.
Griffin was making a good bit of noise though, so I offered to take him to try to quiet him down. After about an hour he was acting tired, but was still fussing loudly. I’m sure the kid isn’t feeling all that great, but I was starting to get worn down by it so I handed him off to Tristen a few minutes ago and, from the sounds of it, he’s out.
Oh, and Duke decided to take Kentucky’s crown of most embarrassing loss of the season last night. UK had lost to some unranked team at home as the #1 team. Duke did that too, but to make it worse, the loss snapped a 19-year 150 game streak of wins against non-conference teams on their home court. Compounding the pain are the facts that Duke was up by 15 about midway through the first half, they committed a ton of turnovers, many unforced, and they maybe hit half of their copious free throws.
On the final play in regulation Duke had a few shots at the bucket but missed, so it went into overtime.
On the final play in overtime, it was tied up, Duke had the ball with the clock winding down and was holding for the last shot. Tre Jones passed it to Matthew Hurt (there are arguments on whether it as a good pass or not), Hurt couldn’t quite secure the ball, a couple Stephen F. Austin players jumped on it and one got it, passed it to a guy at the top of the key. That guy ran down the court with only one Blue Devil, Jack White, trailing him. He laid it in just before the clock expired.
It was a piss poor effort. Really, the loss isn’t the part that stings so much. This is a very young Duke team, starting four freshmen and a sophomore, but what kills me is how they snapped that streak to a team Kenpom has ranked towards the very bottom of Division I teams.
Bleh. Oh well.