OUCH!

I have a belly button fettish. Not in a good way. I can't stand them, don't like them... can't even touch my own. I know, it's weird. But it is true. So when the girls came home... and were both "outies"... I had to learn to love them. I was doing a pretty good job if it, if I do say so myself. I could even touch the girl's belly buttons (when necessary... like lotion, bathing, etc.) without gagging or wanting to pass out. (This may be slightly dramatic... but not far from it.) I even learned to love them - and think that they are CUTE.





But in the last year, Rachel's has gotten worse and worse. It could be that she thinks that hers is a pull toy. I am not kidding. It is HER fettish. She can pull it out about two inches... and let me tell you... that is just about more than I can take. Seriously. I am talking major, stomach turning revulsion. Call me a whimp... I don't care. It is just YUCKY.






Rachel has another thing that she loves to do... and that is laugh. She will come and lay across your lap and beg to be tickled. This past summer, I noticed that when you would tickle her... her belly button would bulge out on its own. (ugh... again...) So I had Jodi look at it when she was over... and she said that she could feel a hernia. So... on her 5-year-old check up, we had her pediatrician check her out... and sure enough... she wanted us to see a surgeon. The surgeon at UK was wonderful. He said that it wasn't that big of a deal... and that as long as she would leave it alone... she would probably be fine, until later in life and childbearing years. KEY WORDS: LEAVE IT ALONE. Sorry Dr. Iocono... not gonna happen. When we told him about her fettish... he said... "Yeah... that's gonna make it worse. Let's just fix it now and be done with it."






This was back in February... and in order to allow for PLENTY of travel time to go get Sara (ha ha ha) we decided to schedule surgery WELL after our trip to bring her home. Surgery was scheduled for April 9th. This seemed like a great plan at the time. We arrived home at 1am on Friday... and poor Sara has been thrown from the frying pan into the fire. She must think we live the most bizarre and crazy life!






So today was the day. She was up and ready this morning. She had her promised Jello and popsicles for breakfast. After that...we left for the hospital. Rachel was ready - armed with Puc-cake (aka Cupcake) and Custard, who also had a small procedure done as well. See photos below. She went bravely... and never shed a tear. She was so adorable in their too-large pajama pants, walking down the hall, pants falling down and showing her cute little hind end...then when she turned to grab them up... she saw me watching and waved - "Goodbye Mommy!" She did great. She only whimpered a little coming out of the anesthesia... but cried bloody murder when they pulled off the surgical tape. (Not when the took out the IV or anything else... just the tape...)






She is such a sweet little girl... who has really come into her own in the past year. She has a happy-go-lucky attitude about everything and is a joy to be around. She asked me this evening if her belly button would be gone... and in a way... I hope not. I guess we have to wait until the "revealing" to see. I hate to see it gone... because it was a part of who she is. However, I also know that later in life she will be glad that it isn't as pronounced and that the hernia has been repaired. In the meantime...we are so proud of her and how brave she was today. (Please note cords hanging off of Rachel... she did NOT want them to remove any more sticky items, so we came home with the leads on. Mommy got them off - no pain involved. Whoo hoo!)

TODAY IS ALSO A VERY IMPORTANT DAY FOR ANOTHER REASON... THIS IS A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO A VERY SPECIAL COUPLE THAT THE HANKS GANG LOVES VERY MUCH!!!

HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TO JAMIE AND CHUCK!!!

(PS... You owe me for not posting a photo of you on the blog... I had a few good ones in mind...)