Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Like getting involved in a land war in Asia

Getting a puppy while you have a two-year old might be right up there with the other classic blunders but nothing prepared us for this weekend. Not by a long shot.

On Sunday afternoon, we were all at the park having a wonderful time. It was a beautiful fall day- bright, crisp sunshine, green grass, a cute puppy rolling around in the crunchy leaves and an even cuter little boy enjoying the playground. He climbed, he swung, and we must have watched him go down that slide 25 times over the course of the hour we were there.

The last time however (you knew this 'however' was coming, didn't you?), his foot caught just before the bottom and he tumbled off the end of the slide, landing with his arm hyper-extended behind him. At first I thought he was just crying because it was scary. Then I thought he was crying because he twisted it or something. But when snuggling, breastfeeding and even (yes I went there) a piece of halloween candy had no effect and we realized that he was refusing to use the arm and screamed whenever it was moved, I knew something was really wrong.

Thirty minutes after the fall, we were at the ER and three hours after that, it was official. My baby had broken his arm just above the elbow. Its not a clean break, rather what the ER doc referred to as a "green stick" break. Whatever it is you could tell it hurt like hell and it broke my heart to see my little boy stoically holding his tears back as they took x-rays, poked and prodded and then finally splinted up his hurt little arm.

I kept him home the last two days and we had lots of Popsicles and Pixar movies which did nothing to ease my parental guilt at allowing something like that to happen. I know its not the end of the world and there are MANY MUCH WORSE injuries but I've never had a broken bone in my life (knock on wood) and here is my little guy already with a busted arm under his belt.

Gah.

So, we've been dealing with a crazed puppy, and a tired, hurting, splinted little kid along with the normal stressors of jobs and bills and all that boring adult crap that comes along with being a 'grown up.' Oh and have I mentioned that I'm not on speaking terms with one of my brothers? Yeah.

Can I be a 10 year old for Halloween? Things were so much simpler then.


Otto and Ruby before The Incident.

3 comments:

buffy said...

Oh my gosh, the accidents are the worst. I wrote about a year, maybe two, ago about Reed falling out of my lap and busting his eye on the coffee table. We had to go to the er where they had to STRAP HIM DOWN TO A PAPOOSE BOARD so they could decide if he needed stitches. Luckily, he didn't, and I left the room and let Jason stay with him because my crying was just upsetting him worse. These things happen.

Birdie said...

OH MY GOD, buffy that must have been so awful. But it helps to know this happens to other parents.

The Schneldales said...

Ugh! Poor kid. Poor mama. This is really just warming you up for the next 16 years or so of ER visits, eh?

Wish I could write "You're an awesome mom! Accidents happen!" without sounding ridiculous. But you know. You're an awesome mom. Accidents happen - right under our noses.