My first stage performance

This past Thursday I made my big debut on stage.
Our performance was called "No title" and me and 16 of my friends had fun dancing in front of over 300 people.
Now, we rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed prior to the performance and the teachers helped us come up with a choreography. Sure it was good, but as you will see in the video, I like to spice things up a little and I added my little touches here and there.
You need to know though that the teachers were not in front telling us when to switch from one move to the other so we need to be commended for listening to the music pretty well and knowing when to switch to the new move. Ok, it got a little bit chaotic at the end but overall, we did good.

You might notice that I seem to be about a head smaller than all the other ones. Sure, I am not growing fast, but all my friends have been 4 for quite a while now and I and two other girls are the only ones turning 4 later on this Summer.
Now you know everything so, enjoy the show!

Where have I been?

Bonjour!

Do you want to know where I have been? Well, you did miss the episode of me going to Newport to see the aquarium but that will come at some point if Maman figures out how to get more hours in a day.

The story of my first year in preschool though has been a lot about my ears. Out of 10 months, I managed to be on antibiotics 7 times for ear infections until we all decided that enough was enough. My left ear tube was plugged so there was nothing to be done but change it.

We went back to the guy who did my first surgery but the poor guy had to have surgery for himself the day of my appointment. That was road block number 1. We then found another doc who recommended we remove the old tubes, place new ones in and while we were at it, remove my enlarged and often inflamed adenoids. The surgery was scheduled for May 26. I woke up that morning, got the only liquid I was allowed to have and asked to go back to bed… unusual… I got up 30 minutes later and the apple juice came back out. It turned out that I also had a fever of 102.4. A quick call to the anesthesiologist and the guy wisely decides to cancel the surgery. Road block number 2.

Well, by May 28 , after 2 days of high fever and hives all over my body, I was diagnosed with strep throat and scarlet fever also known as scarlatine. And here comes yet another round of antibiotics… and the surgery is rescheduled for June 10.

I get all better, go back to school, go back to my silly, goofy, lots of time-out mode and then, the antibiotics stop. That was June 6. That’s when Papa realized that we were supposed to give the antibiotics 2 times a day. See, my numerous previous rounds of antibio were always once a day and Maman did not even check. By June 8, I looked kind of funny and my teacher had to call Maman that morning to report a fever. Back to the doc who diagnosed that the strep throat was not gone and that yes, it could be because of Maman’s mistake but also because that particular antibiotic does not always work for strep. Great. A quick call to the surgeon: if the fever is still high on the 9^th, surgery will be canceled… Nooooooooooooooooooooooo…. Road block number 3.

On the 9^th , my fever is completely gone and I have a big breakfast, a sure sign that I am back to normal and ready to go to school. It also means that we get a green light for the surgery.

So finally, June 10 is here and we nearly had a road block number 3: I certainly knew that I was supposed to be on a liquid diet until 6:30am; as Maman was taking her shower and Papa was eating his breakfast, I sneaked in the pantry, closed the door and opened the bag of raisins. Luckily, Papa heard the noise I made with the bag and arrived just in time to remove from my mouth the handful of raisins I had shoved in there before I was able to swallow any... This was a close call... So, at 8:30am, to the hospital we go. By 10:00am they gave me the “happy” medicine and I gradually feel on a cloud. They rolled me in at 10:30am for a 35 minute procedure. I had told the parents that I would keep my eyes open during the entire surgery but, after inhaling the watermelon gas, I was gone for a while… By 11:25am, Maman was a wreck since this was a lot more than 35 minutes. By 11:30am they finally heard that everything went well and I was waking up in the recovery room. By 11:45am a nurse came to get the parents since I was having a tough time with the waking up process.

It turned out that I had what they call pediatric emergence delirium. Yes, it’s the delirium part that is interesting. I was screaming, thrashing and throwing things, I was trying to remove my IV and mainly, I was out of it and my eyes could not even track. When I saw Maman, she became an easy target for a hitting contest: I was hitting her really hard and nobody could touch me. That was a fun time they tell me. Finally, after 15 more minutes of this, Maman wisely backed away and talked to me firmly and I gradually came around. It still took another 10 minutes until I accepted to be touched. At that point, I got scared and could not be pried away from Maman. Oh boy, that was quite an experience and it’s a good thing that I had no outside or inside stitches that could have suffered from all that thrashing around.

I fell asleep for over an hour and woke up feeling all better, my voice a little hoarse but ready to devour the orange Popsicle they gave me. And, time to go back home it was. I ate normally, slept another 3 hours, had a great dinner and a comfortable night and woke up happy this Saturday.

Well, that’s where I have been… In less than 3 weeks, I will be flying to France where we all hope that there will be no need for antibiotics… That was quite a ride…