Day Two Post Surgery

Our Talia is amazing! She slept through the night, from 6:45 pm to 5:00 am on one dose of Tylenol only, given at 6:30 last night. We ended up having to call the doctor on call at UNC, as she was running a 101.2 fever last night. Luckily, the Tylenol really works for her, and apparently the fever is not uncommon. Little "Houdini" as she is known, did manage to get out of her "no-no's" last night. That nickname came well before surgery, as she is quite adept at getting out of highchair restraints and other buckles. She's already had a whole mashed banana, two bowls of oatmeal, milk and water and is down for a nap--and it isn't even 9:00 am yet! She's asking for more water than usual, probably all the medicine and the tube that was in her throat. We've kept the no-no's off so she can sign and play while we monitor her closely. She seems to understand about not putting things in her mouth. For this morning's nap, we've threaded the no-no strap under her PJ top, to see if that helps it to stay on. They had advised taking the strap off, due to a strangulation risk at night, so that's what we did last night. We'll monitor her for naps, and see how it goes.
I've made a big bowl of bread pudding, my mom's wonderful recipe, for when Tao wakes up. We had great naps ourselves yesterday, and a good night of sleep last night--one more nap and I may feel back to normal.
She continues to not like the medicine regimen--ear drops twice a day, antibiotic (that smells like moldy socks!) three times a day, and oxycodone as needed. We gave her oxycodone again this morning, as she had already had Tylenol and still appeared to be in some pain. But, she's playing, smiling, interacting and kissing--all good signs that she's on the mend. I so do not look forward to any future surgeries in this little one's life--bone grafting and further lip repair are probable. It's a terrible thing sending your little one off to surgery, and then seeing them in pain, even if we know it's needed for her overall growth and development.
On the jie jie (big sister) front--we're getting multiple update calls from Charlotte, NC each day. The swim instructor isn't even sure she needs lessons (after lesson 2!) as she jumps in to the deep end and swims with real strokes to the instructor. Who knew? Last week she was excitedly just doggy-paddling in the shallow end. They've also been on a play date to the mall--to buy jewelry of course :), shopping at Costco, and to Monkey Joe's, a large indoor playground of inflatable "moon walk" type structures. Of course our girl wanted to climb the highest faux rock wall, about 20 feet per Aunt Laura, and did it successfully. They've also baked sugar cookies, eaten pizza, been bike-riding and gone to Aunt Laura's gym. Lydia has thrown a bit of a wrench into Aunt Laura's carefully planned menus, as she has recently decided that she's a vegetarian. Someone at school told her where meat came from, and she has decided that she doesn't want to eat animals. In the first week, she made an exception for bacon and pepperoni, but now, even that is off the table, so to speak. As Art and I were vegetarian for many years, we'll pull out our old recipes and adapt the daily meals to accommodate our big girl's wishes.
The Sears guy is here repairing the washer and the neighbor boy is mowing the lawn, so life is pretty good. We'll aim for pictures later--no pun intended! and try to post when Tao sleeps. Thanks for all the good thoughts and wishes, and for the checking-in-on-us phone calls.