Our Little Superman

Well, tomorrow is little Jonas's surgery for his metopic synostosis. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read about it here. We spent the morning at pre-op appointments, learning about what exactly will be happening tomorrow, and then the poor kid had blood taken again. I don't know what it is about his veins, but it took the nurses several tries to get the blood flowing, and he's already showing bruising tonight from the two pokes they did. You would think that Children's Hospital employees would be used to working on little ones, but they moved that needle around in his arm like he was the hardest case they'd ever had. It happened last time too. He of course cried, but this kid is so sweet that he stopped the minute it was over and even cheerfully said "bye bye" to the lady who drew his blood. He kills me! We ran into his surgeons, Dr. Wilkinson and Dr. French, and we said hello to them. They liked Jonas's red Chuck Taylor shoes!


This evening, we wanted to give Jonas a special and fun experience before putting him through what he has to go through tomorrow, so we took him to Chuck E. Cheese's. It was a BLAST! He ate pizza, played games, and rode rides. His favorite was the little carousel. He waved like a pageant queen as it went around and around; everyone was cracking up at how cute it was. And yes, I put the Superman shirt on him on purpose!

Some rides he just sat in, because he got scared when they started to move, so we didn't have to spend coins on those. Jonas earned a whopping ten tickets with the games he played, so he got a Tootsie Roll, which he was pretty excited about.

We came home and tried to feed Jonas anything and everything he was willing to eat (peanut butter, crackers, a tangerine, goldfish crackers, etc.), because he won't be allowed to eat anything tomorrow. He ran around like a crazy kid for awhile, probably from all the excitement of the night. He put this bag around his neck on his own and danced around!











Now Jonas is asleep, and I'm enjoying catching up on all the kind messages from friends and family around the country, wishing us all good luck tomorrow and letting us know that they're praying for us. My parents even took a special trip down to Notre Dame (a 90 minute drive from their home in Michigan!) to light candles for their grandson at the Grotto, so they'll (the candles-not my parents!) be burning during his surgery.


We know Jonas is in good hands, but we're still dreading tomorrow. While he's in surgery, I plan on writing the long overdue thank-you notes for all the lovely gifts Jonas received before and after we brought him home from Kyrgyzstan. That way I can focus on thankfulness instead of fear (thanks for the idea, Aunt Kathy). And, I'll keep in mind all the fun we had tonight and the huge smile on his face, which no stupid skull surgery can ever take away!

P.S. I'll have access to WiFi at the hospital, so I'll try to keep this blog updated over the next few days while we're there, letting folks know how Jonas is doing, but I won't be posting public pictures of him while he's swollen and healing, as I don't think that's necessary or kind (to him). If you're a parent with a kid with craniosynostosis, and you happen upon this blog in your search for more information, please contact me, and I can share pictures privately with you.

P.P.S. There's an organization called Cranio Care Bears that sends care packages (for free!) to kids around the world who are having the surgery Jonas is undergoing tomorrow. Jonas got his box last week, and it was full of goodies like snacks, toys, hats, a prayer chain, and more. Here's a cute picture of him with all of the awesome items from the package. This kid is ready to tackle tomorrow like the Superman boy he is!