This spring we entered the world of Pokemon.  It caught me completely off guard, as I didn’t even know that it was still a thing. It clearly is.  There are books, games, movies, and the cards.  The trading cards have taken over Woo’s world, along with most of the boys in his class. I do not understand them at all.

I thought that I could ignore them, and this fad would pass, but sadly, it hasn’t.  Woo is so invested in Pokemon that he has spent some of his allowance on the cards; significant because it is only the second time that he has actually spent his own money.  He talks about them all the time, gets books from the library, and trades.  I think that he would trade all the time if he could. He can’t do it at school (because they are banned in his class, which should have been a clue to us), so he and his friends are constantly making playdates so that they can trade.

The thing is, he is new to this game, and he makes some really lopsided trades.  Trades that he loses.  Willy and I are trying to strike a balance between letting him make his own mistakes and helping him see that there is a ranking to these cards, and if he trades all his “good” cards, he will have nothing left to trade.  Along the way we, along with some of his friend’s parents, have intervened to ensure that trades approximate something fair for both sides.

Woo had a friend over this afternoon, and they spent the better part of two hours talking and trading Pokemon. It had been mostly amicable, so I was shocked when Woo came to me, visibly upset and claiming that his friend had taken all of Woo’s cards and mixed them in to his own collection. I went to investigate, and got an ambiguous response when I asked the friend if he had done this. He didn’t deny that he had done it, but acknowledged that it the cards may have been mixed together.  I directed the boys to sort out the cards, but it quickly became clear that Woo’s cards were not there.  A quick search revealed that they had been left by Woo, in Woo’s room.

I felt awful.  I believed Woo, and in doing so, essentially accused this friend of taking his cards.  He’d done nothing wrong, yet he was now afraid that he had, and that I would tell his parents and he would be punished. We talked it out, and Woo and I both apologized. He bounced, and the boys enjoyed the rest of their time together.  I did tell his parents, but there was no danger that he would get in trouble.  They were understanding, but still. I feel terrible.

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I have spent much of the last week feeling like I am holding my breath, all in knots.  It’s the week that I have been dreading since the dates fell into place, the week that both Woo and Willy had surgery.  I am a worrier by nature, so to surgeries meant it hit me doubly hard this time.  By Thursday, the day before Woo’s surgery, I was a grumpy and overtired mess. 

Woo was getting a tooth pulled.  One of his molars was fused to the jawbone and had not erupted.  This was starting to cause him some discomfort, and could lead to big issues with jaw development moving forward, so it needed to come out.  I know it’s a pretty routine surgery, but I was still anxious.  It was such a nice and comforting surprise to see one of my good friends in the waiting room when we arrived at the surgery centre on Friday. Her daughter was having surgery right before Woo, and even though she was feeling many of the same things that I was feeling, her presence both calmed me and distracted me. Still, one of the hardest things that I have had to do was hold Woo as they put him under, then be directed to walk away, leaving him so small and vulnerable on the operating table.  I might have shed a tear or two.

Thankfully the surgery was fast and uneventful.  By the time that Willy arrived from walking Goose to school, they were calling me back to sit and cuddle him in recovery.  We were able to take him home shortly after, and he spent the day lounging on the couch, spoiled rotten.  He amazed me in his ability to bounce back.  He never once complained of pain, and dove right into his normal routine, heading to the park to play soccer on Saturday morning.

We were allowed a brief sigh of relief before we started to prep for Willy’s surgery today.  He had a stapedectomy, an operation that will hopefully restore the hearing in his right ear.  He had this operation performed on his left ear in early 2009, and although he is very sensitive to loud noises now, he can thankfully hear in that ear again.  We have been looking forward to this operation, as his hearing loss has been frustrating for both of us.  There are risks associated with the procedure, so I worry still.

Today was a long day for me.  I had barely slept, was awakened in the middle of the night, and then I had to get the lils to school and Willy to the hospital.  The majority of my day was spent worrying about Willy, so I was very relieved to be called about an hour earlier than expected to come and pick him up. He is now upstairs, sleeping peacefully, as he will be for the next few days.  I still have to make it through the next week, trying to ensure that he gets the rest that he needs and that the lils don’t hurt him or drive us all crazy as they try to be calm and quiet.

Right now they all sleep peacefully, so I close my eyes and slowly exhale.

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