kiss that cleft goodbye

From day one we've known that Ender would need surgery to fix his cleft palate, and that day has finally come. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights from the big day.

The young man, totally oblivious to the confusion and misery that's about three hours in his future.


It turns out that even hospital gowns for babies show your butt.


We tried to have as much fun with him as we could beforehand to compensate for what the rest of the day would hold.


Daddy looks happy, but his stomach feels like it's full of nervous squirrels.


King Ender, waving to his loyal subjects. And flirting with the nurses.


Mommy got to go with Ender into the big room where they gave him the sleepy gas.


This is what he looked like when they brought us into the recovery room. His little arms are wrapped in splints that keep him from sticking stuff in his mouth, ruining the doctor's handiwork.


The whiskers taped to his face are a suture that they put through one side of his tongue and out the other, so that if his throat swelled up they could pull his tongue out and open up the airway.


He did this for about twenty minutes or so before they gave him some morphine to calm him down.


After the morphine.


Our little zombie... out for brains.


The drool spot and bloodstain he left on his little hospital crib when he was turning over and over trying to find a comfortable position.


We borrowed a toy from the playroom and used it to distract Ender during his stay in the hospital.


Ender's babysitter Mery visited him in the hospital and gave him this "smart toy" as we call it. It's been one of his favorite toys ever since!


The old "stone face & protruding tongue" pose is his most common expression these days. Hopefully the super-happy Ender we all know and love will return once he's out of the splints.