The Mouse that Roared

Dear Ellie,

Today, with the endo-tracheal tube no longer blocking your airways, you cried like a real baby for the first time.  Or at least tried.  I was surprised.  The last time you were extubated, you gurgled a little bit but that's about it.  This time it was a nice, sustained expression of despair and distress.  You had trouble getting the decibels up there, though,  so it sounded a little bit more like one of those half-drowned cats I was talking about in one of the earlier letters.  Sadly, I wasn't there to witness it but your mother recorded it for me.  Apparently, she was in ZOMG-MOM-MODE the whole time, desperate to make whatever ill that was bothering you go away.  Having never seen you cry after 2 months of ceaselessly watching over you, I'm sure she had lot's of pent up mommy instincts just bursting to get out.