And Then We Spent the Night in the ER

A while back, Carder began to protest his high chair.  We moved him into a booster seat at the table.

Also, call me a bad parent if you will, but I think it is next to impossible to sit right next to him the entire time he is at the table.  If he wants second helpings or needs his hands wiped or drops his drink and you need to wipe it up or if you need to grab ketchup from the fridge...you just can't ALWAYS be right next to him.  And he often eats better if you ignore him while he eats.  And in our open floor plan home I am only a couple of steps away if I am in the kitchen.

This new seating arrangement has been working fine - except he has learned that he can use his hands and feet to push himself away from the table.  Our chairs are pretty heavy, so typically this just results in pushing back.  But sometimes, the front legs of the chair would lift off the floor.

After repeatedly telling him that he needs to stop because his chair would flip, he finally flipped it over.  As we were getting ready to sit down to a meal, Carder was in his seat and I had walked into the kitchen to grab something else.  I saw it happening and couldn't do anything to stop it.  There was a huge thud as the chair hit the floor. 

I was (and still am) fairly certain that he didn't hit is head on anything.  He cried for a minute tops and said he was OK and then went on his merry way of playing and acting completely normal.  I wasn't really all that worried at that point.  We called the pediatrician just to be safe and his advice was to waken him a couple of times to make sure he wasn't too hard to arouse and that he knew who we were.

When we tried to wake him up before we went to bed, he was very groggy and hard to waken.  And then he didn't want to tell us that Derek was Daddy or who any people in pictures were or who our dogs were.  How much of this was because he was tired and 2 and what could be attributed to a concussion we weren't sure.  So off to the ER we went.  And I was in a panic.

We got checked in around midnight.  After we were escorted into a room and got settled in, the nurse brought him a toy and a book.  And within 5 minutes he was fully awake and telling us all about everything and was obviously fine.

3 hours later we saw the doctor (who confirmed he was fine) and were sent on our way.

Luckily he slept until 10 the next morning because we all needed the extra sleep!

The moral of this story is - if you have a child who is getting to be a daredevil, wake them up in the middle of the night so that you can have a baseline to compare it should you ever need to waken your child from a deep sleep to check for a concussion!

A Really S#!++% Night

Tonight, we were grilling out hamburgers for dinner.  While Derek grilled, Carder and I played in the backyard with his trucks, rocks, and bubbles.  When dinner was ready, the normal temper tantrum occurred when it was time to go inside.

I wrangled the crying and writhing toddler into the door and got him washed up for dinner.  After dinner, we moved on to bath time.  When I was bathing him, Derek noticed that I had dog poop on the bottom of my shoe.  OF COURSE I DID - and I didn't check my shoes before I walked in the door (due to the tantrum).  So, Derek took my shoes and then began the process of cleaning the floors from where I had tracked poop all over the house. 

Since Derek was busy cleaning the mess I made, I decided to use the restroom while Carder played in the tub since Derek wouldn't be available to let me go right before Carder's bedtime ritual.  (Note:  The tub is right next to the toilet so there is no danger of drowning...)

I noticed Carder lean a bit to the left and I knew what was happening.  CODE BROWN.  So while Derek cleaned the crap off the floors, I rinsed Carder off with fresh water, wiped his little bum, and wrapped him in a towel while I dealt with the crap floating in the bathtub.

Derek came into the bathroom while I was cleaning up, shook his head, and walked back out the door for the bleach...

Good Times.  Good Stuff.  Thankfully we have a pretty good sense of humor...

And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

In the Crapper

That is where my 3 month old iPhone landed...

The In Laws were here.  And before I go any further, I am NOT BLAMING THEM...

Derek and I had gone on a date the night before and they had taken care of the bedtime routine.  When I got up with Carder, we were the only two people up in the house.  Carder was asking for "snacks" (which is currently how he says he wants breakfast).  I did all the things I normally do when I am the only one up or home with Carder...

I started by letting the dogs out (because one of our dogs will whine until you let him out and it is about the most annoying sound in the world when I haven't yet had a cup of coffee...)

I noticed that the shower curtain was open and the toilet lid was up.  We normally keep these things closed to help deter accidents and when you have house guests these things don't always end up closed.  So, I walked over to close them up before I started breakfast and let Carder wander around.

Why I didn't close the toilet lid first I couldn't tell you.  Oh but if I could go back in my time machine...

Anyway, when I turned around, Carder had quietly walked up behind me with my phone in his hands.  I bumped him and he started falling and reflexively he threw the phone into the air.

It was like it was in slow motion - the phone was falling directly into the bowl of the toilet and my son's head was heading for the side of the bowl.

I caught Carder and let the phone land in the water.

No, we did not have insurance.  No, putting it in rice didn't help.  I tried it all.  My phone is fried.  And I would be lying if I said I didn't cry about it.

We aren't up for an upgrade for quite a while (as in over a year).  My wonderful husband gave me his new phone and took my older one...so I can at least keep videoing the cute things Carder does and using Tango and FaceTime with our families.

The moral of the story is that you should get insurance on your phone.  And don't let your toddler play with it...

My Middle Name Should Have Been Grace

I am not the most graceful person.  I frequently trip and bump into things.  On most days, I have at least one bruise somewhere on my body that I cannot explain the origin of.  But for me, this is nothing new. 

Remember the Beanie Baby craze back in the late 90’s?  I found it absolutely hysterical that I shared a birthday with Gracie the Swan.

Derek isn’t a stranger to my clumsiness.  In fact, pretty much anyone who knows me is well aware of my inability to walk and chew gum at the same time.  I am amazed that I am “allowed” to carry Carder around while I walk.  Full Disclosure - I do have to admit there have been several times I have almost tripped while carrying him and almost fallen.  One of my worst fears is that I will somehow injure myself when I am home alone with Carder and have to figure out how to get treatment.  Each time I slice up something for the dinner I am cooking, I envision what would happen if I cut my finger off.  Gross?  Absolutely.  Irrational?  Not so much.

Thursday night, Derek wasn’t home yet and Carder was quite fussy – which is the norm for his last day of day care for the week.  I was rushing around trying to cook dinner and Carder was crying because he wanted to be held.  I had placed some Taco meat in the freezer to cool it off for Carder.  I opened the freezer door and bent down to get the meat out – bumping my head in the process on the plastic ice maker that sticks out.  But I didn’t just bump it - I whacked it hard enough that it split my eye open.

I had rehearsed my action plan a million times in my head.  I called Derek and calmly told him that I needed for him to finish up so that he could come home and I could take myself to the ER.  My exact words were “Are you about finished?  Then could you wrap things up and head on home as soon as you can?  I hit my head on the freezer and split it open and I think I need to head to the ER to see if I need stitches.”

Derek – who obviously had not rehearsed this plan in his head a million times – freaked out a bit (I fully believe he envisioned me in a pool of blood on the floor with Carder crawling over me crying at the top of his lungs).  He was home shortly.

I looked like a boxer who had been punched in the eye.  At the ER, they assessed the situation and glued the cut closed and sent me on my way.  The eye did turn black and looked wonderful for the Memorial Day weekend…  It looks much better now, but you should have seen the looks Derek got everywhere we went.  I think people assumed the black eye was from him...

The "Big Spill"

Yesterday morning, as I was getting out of the shower, I slipped on a wet tile.  And not just one of those little slips where you catch your balance shortly thereafter...I am talking about the kind where you flail around as gravity pulls you closer to the earth.  Quickly.

I hit the ground with a thud, knees first, wrist second, rolling over onto my back with arms and legs pointing up into the air.  Why on my back with my lady parts flashing all around?

You may recall the pictures I posted of our newly remodeled bathroom not to long ago.  Well, the shower has a large piece of glass instead of having a shower curtain or anything like that.  As I was neared the floor, I did my best to point my body away from that glass.  Even though it is tempered, I didn't want to count on the fact that it wouldn't break and impale me.  (That would have been a bad way to start out a Wednesday morning, huh?)

Derek rushed up to me to check on me and help me up.  But I must have been pretty funny looking; lying naked on the floor...He has been telling me I went "Down like James Brown" for the last 2 days.  It has actually been quite humorous.  Painful, but humorous.

I have always said my middle name should have been "Grace" because I have none anywhere else...