Here it is people.  The very first controversial blog post.  Are you excited?  Are your fingers itching to fill the comments section below?  Are you ready to read my rants on gun laws and Donald Trump?  Oh stop.  Get real.  I know nothing about either of those things.  Nor do I care to.  Let’s talk about speech and mom stuff.  Let’s talk about Gus. 

Gus is my sweet delicious hunk of beef.  He is so chill and the only fits he throws are imitating Hank’s.  And then he laughs at the ridiculousness of it all.  Gus always has this look about him.  That look of “what the h is going on here.”  You know what I mean.  People often ask us why he is sad.  John once responded with “He isn’t sad.  He is just perpetually unimpressed.” Perfect. 

So here is the problem with being a super chill, perpetually unimpressed kid.  No one notices when you are miserable.  When Hank is sick he would like the whole world to stop moving, drop everything and show up at the door with grape Pedialyte, saltines, and a completely unnecessary band aid.  When Gus is sick….nothing.  We will be playing dinosaurs when the T-rex walks over Gus’s noggin and I think “hmm, you feel warm.”  Sure enough, 102 fever.  One could argue that the fact he never sleeps is a symptom.  But I don’t sleep.  Hank doesn’t sleep.  It might be in our genes.  Either way, six ear infections later, I am exhausted.    

Now here it is, the part where some of you are going to say “No!  No!  Absolutely not!”  But I am going to do it.  I am going to have tubes put in Gus’s perfect little Yoda-esque ears.  I know guys.  I could try garlic oil and chiropractic care.  But I am the speech mom.  I have seen it all.  And I have seen what works consistently.  Note that big important word:  consistently. 

Hank had tubes put in his sweet perfect little ears at 8 months.  I lost a lot of sleep over that recommended surgery.  Is it the right thing to do?  Am I doing what is best for Hank or am I just too exhausted to have good judgment?  But I did it.  Guess what happened after….he slept  (a little).  He started babbling new consonants.  He heard the front door squeak when John came home from work.  He danced to music blaring from our questionable neighbor’s car radio.  I want these things for Gus too. 

Yeah, I know surgery sucks.  No one likes to put their little one under.  No one. But I am choosing the path most often traveled on this one.  I could spew out a bunch of research for you, like children with ear tubes have over 30% less ear infections following placement of ear tubes.  Or that children with chronic ear infections have a significantly higher rate of speech sound development following placement of tubes.  But statistics and facts are boring.  Let’s look at more pictures of Gus instead.

I will keep you posted on the Gus ear saga.  I am sure he will do great and be back to attacking his brother and Mildred the wiener dog in no time.  If you have some anti ear tube rants you want to post below, that is great too.  If I don’t like them, I will just delete them and pretend like the internet ate them.  I can do that, right?