Marianne's teeth, among other things

Man. I am clearly not feeling the blogging bug these days. Snippets on Instagram are satiating my desire to share life, I guess. I really do love Instagram. I love that lots of little pictures of our life are being shared (and saved). It takes a sense of pressure off of me to write actual blog posts. That has pros and cons.

Today I took Marianne to the oral surgeon, as all of you on FB already know.

Facebook has lots of pros and cons, as well, but last night it was a beautiful thing. I posted a prayer request for Marianne, as she was extremely anxious about this morning's surgery. Within seconds, literally, there were three "likes" (indicating prayers being offered) and two comments of well wishes. They kept rolling in from there. It actually made me tear up, as I saw all these people offering up prayers for my sweet girl, and I felt an enormous sense of peace on her behalf. She slept through the whole night well, and really handled the morning with more calm than I'd have thought possible. Nerves, for sure, but no major outbursts of anger, which is her usual indicator of anxiety.

Facebook may be lots of negative things - a huge time suck, most obviously - but there is great awesomeness in being able to reach out to friends and family in an instant when prayers are needed. Thanks to all of you who responded so sweetly!

The tooth extraction required Marianne to fast from midnight last night, even from water. That's a challenge as an adult, and nearly incomprehensible to a kid these days. Someone (Lindsay?) remarked the other day on how in our generation, fasting or sacrificing is so difficult. We have a craving for something and have to have it. But if you go back to our grandparents' generation, they fasted every night from bedtime till mass, even from water, and on days of fasting and abstinence, they really fasted. They were used to fasting at a level most of us don't understand. It struck me as true. We're a selfish, Veruca Salt generation. When we want something, we want it now!

This really has nothing to do with Marianne at all. She did a great job. You know me - it comes to mind, I type about it. Anywho...

The appointment this morning went well. Marianne was clearly tense, but she found the newer Parent Trap on the tv in the exam room while we waited for the doctor, and that helped relax her to the point that she could laugh and enjoy it. And maybe 15 minutes later, I got to laugh and enjoy post-op Marianne, as she came out of her IV-sedation. That's just good fun. She was groggy and squirmy and confused. She got very concerned about the fact that "I promised Julia I'd be at the fish fry on Friday!" At one point, she looked at her hands, and started touching each finger. I assured her, jokingly, that they were all there, to which she responded, "There are five there, but these three aren't really there..." (holding up only her middle finger in illustration of "these three", which lent it an especially comical air).

They told me she'd be groggy and sleep most of the morning, but likely up and ready to play by afternoon. They underestimated her. She had a small smoothie when we got home and went up to bed, but was back downstairs, restless, within half an hour. She spent the morning playing video games (a reprieve from a family-wide Lenten restriction on screen time, just for the day) and was ready for ice cream for lunch midday. Nothing cheers a kid like being allowed ice cream for lunch, you know. As an added bonus, she had gelato for her snack, courtesy of her very thoughtful aunt across the street. She's feeling pretty special and mostly over the whole surgery thing. She wants to eat more challenging foods, but I'm making her slow down as best I can.

Hopefully by tomorrow she'll be nearly back to normal. She has that fish fry to get to.