After initially bringing up the subject last November, the deed was finally done nine days ago and Sam is now the proud owner of myringotomy tubes in both his ears. While we were both worried about the surgery, the tubes were beginning to look like an attractive solution as Sam's frequent ear infections were starting to become resistant to a range of antibiotics and our list was getting thin. We are pleased to report that the surgery was a great success and at 15 minutes duration from start to finish, the actual procedure was less traumatic physically (for Sam) and emotionally (for us) than we had initially feared. Our doubts about the surgery were quickly erased afterwards when the doctor told us that the fluid in Sam's ears was pretty thick (glue ear) and had probably been in there for two months or longer. He was confident that Sam's hearing would be greatly improved by the surgery and from what we've witnessed since then, he was 100% right. Over the last week or so, Sam's already decent vocabulary has increased dramatically and his words have become a lot clearer. We also noticed that he's now more interested in participating in the group activities at the Little Gym. We had always assumed that he was just more interested in climbing on all the equipment but perhaps he couldn't even hear what the others were doing until now. All in all, we're very pleased with the surgery and its aftermath. While we would have preferred for Sam not to have had any ear infections at all, we're hopeful that the tubes will give him a reprieve from those until his own ears grow and become less apt at retaining infected fluid for long periods of time. Hooray for ear tubes and for ear, nose and throat specialists with steady hands. Now bring on the summer so we can play outside!