So your pediatrician suggests you see an ENT doc and then you find your sweet little munchkin in a hospital gown, waiting in a play area to have tubes put in his ears. They will tell you, "It's no big deal." "He will feel so much better the same day" "It will only take 10min and then you can be with your child" and all of these things will be true.
They will also tell you, "He will be crying when he is coming out of anesthesia." This will be a half truth.
What they SHOULD have said is, "He will be screaming mad & cry like you have NEVER seen him cry before. He will still be out of it but look awake. His eyes will be blood shot and it will simply melt your heart like nothing has before and you will cry with your baby while you try to choke out a familiar song you often sing to him so he can be comforted (only it won't work b/c your crying is either also stressing him out or simply he has no idea what's going on because of the sedation meds). " and then you will pass him off to daddy and take a picture and try to pull yourself together. Because really he's fine & the meds are just making him not himself.
And then before long, you will see this face!
And you will forget a little bit how sad it was to listen to your child cry so hard and be so confused for just a short time. You will feel blessed beyond measure. He will hear better and he will interact more and he will learn the hand motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in just a few minutes and your heart will swell.And you will feel blessed beyond measure.
Love ya Buddy!
She can never remember the lemon girl name, or really the strawberry girl name either - so she calls them both "Lemonade". Even after several reminders, she still calls them Lemonade.
It is difficult to see in the above picture but on the far left and far right of the dress this little elephant and monkey are on there too. SO CUTE! The dress is from Gy*mbo*ree. 
The theme and the dress inspired this homemade birthday invitation:
I wanted to order this cake (except in purple rather than blue & with the #2 on top) from Cheri's Bakery (I LOVE Cheri's), however my husband asked if I would put my own baking skills to the test...I hesitated...I complained....and complained...and spent more money on supplies than it would have taken to just order the cake....
but it ended up looking pretty cute and I made the animals on the cake to look more like the animals on her birthday dress so that was cute. And the cake was very yummy. 
The locally owned popcorn shop made a batch of purple & green (grape & green apple) popcorn which I displayed on the food table in a fun tall vase but also I put in baggies (as shown here) for party favors, with foam craft animal heads on craft sticks that are suppose to be puppets but I've found make great bookmarks! So cute and so yummy! The adults enjoyed the popcorn as much as the kids! 
Here is the Birthday Girl, with her party dress, cake and birthday balloons! There are about 6 people with cameras in front of her taking her picture...she just wants CAKE! ;)
After a lot of spilled food on her dress, presents and SO MUCH FUN, here she is at the end of the night (celebrating a birthday AND a K-State Win...what more could a girl want?! not much I tell ya, not much!)
Blocks - any kind really, but here are a couple of ideas I found pictures of online.
Bath toys - I would love for her to have some foam ABC's for the bath tub, I found these (sassy brand) at Target Online, they also come with 123's which I thought was pretty great. 
Paints - washable of course. Or any Crayola Color Wonder paper, coloring pages, etc. She has Color Wonder markers that only color on the special paper - AWESOME! 
