This and That

This is about to be a Hodge Post Post if I've ever written one.
Between my laptop being weird and having to get a new phone last week after mine finally went kaput (I'm sure it had nothing to do with Sawyer trying to flush it in the potty or Dalton giving it a bath in a cup of coke Mmm hmm ... It's amazing it lived to tell the tale). So my picture-taking slash phone-blogging capabilities were out of order. But, I'm back with our scoop- the good, the bad, the ugly. Get excited.

Lets start with the ugly. I suppose it is necessary to document our first ER visit in Pennsylvania.
Dun Dun Dunnnn ...
It was two weeks ago and the kids were playing downstairs while I was in the middle of a very serious eBay auction in my room. All of the sudden I heard a blood-curdling scream... One where I honestly had no idea which one of them it was. I didn't have to wait long; Avery came barreling in my room holding her head with a trail of red following her down the hall. I tried my absolute darnedest not to freak out. To act as though it was totally fine ... Even if I could practically see her skull. Thank. The. Lord that AaronBoone was home; he's fabulous in these situations. He acted as if there was hardly a problem and Avery was in for a TREAT of getting to go to the emergency room.
He's such a great dad.
While they were gone it allllllllllll came out how it had all started. I'm sure you're shocked to hear that Sawyer whacked her over the head with a 2x4, disguised as a "sword." Poor Avery didn't know what hit her. Literally.
Bless.
Aaron sent some pics from the hospital ...








All glued up.



So proud of her sticker. And top-knot by AaronBoone, himself. He's a jack of all trades, you know.
That night we had planned to go to a friends house for a backyard movie showing under the stars. However with the rain and injury incurred, I called to cancel.
But, Avery apparently didn't stop talking about the movie night the whole time they were at the hospital, so Aaron took she and Dalton to the church where they had moved the party due to the weather.



A Bugs Life did not disappoint. I'm glad they had some good after the bad.

That weekend more good was on the list: The start of a week Vacation Bible School at the Wesleyan Church.



She was so excited!



















I'm glad Amaryah took so many pics of all the kids! I loved finding Avery in the crowd.

Dalton had a really hard time with the fact that Avery, Trip, and everyone else in the whole wide world was old enough to go to VBS, but he wasn't. So we tried to do things at night while she (and the rest of the world) was at Bible School.













We spent several nights on the golf course, as usual. These boys love golf. And I love that it wears them out before bedtime.

We went up the tip-top of Roundtop Park so we could see the whole Valley ... The boys liked that.



Last Saturday we drove all over creation looking for a place to swim. After fighting traffic jams, city festivals making the swimming pools packed, and getting lost a time or two, we ended up at a fabulous local hotspot: Treman Park in Ithaca, NY. You walked through a gorgeous park and ended up in a small lake surrounded by Waterfalls. It was beautiful. Unfortunately it too was so packed that I was a nervous wreck and never whipped out my camera. And the water was a not-so-warm 70 degrees. By this time it was 2 o'clock anyway so we bribed the kids with lunch to get them to cheerfully leave. It worked!
It ended up being a fun family day. I'm glad we went, despite the chaos!

More fun is on the menu for this weekend; I'll fill ya in on Monday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Humpty Dumpty's Great Fall

I have barely been able to speak of this, but since Sawyer's little smile will never be the same, I'll tell the tale.
A couple days before Thanksgiving it was a normal morning at the Boone house: children running around in all their nakedness, no-no's here and there, and me picking up one mess after another ... you know the drill. I was in my room when Sawyer let out a gut-wrenching scream. It was one of those where I immediately knew something was very, very wrong. I came in to find poor Sawyer covered in blood and Dalton and Avery both looking on with their mouths hanging open. I picked Sawyer up and called Aaron as quickly as my fingers could dial. I really don't remember what exactly I said, but I know I was screaming and was for all intents and purposes freaking out. I hung up with my mom telling her to come as quickly as possible, as well. I tried to figure out what happening, eventually gathering that after a squabble someone may have nudged him into the fireplace. Then I finally mustered up the nerve to look for the cut. I couldn't tell exactly, but I thought he had knocked out his front teeth. I couldn't put him down, we were all in PJs or worse, and I couldn't just throw us in the car and head to the ER, so I did what any mommy would do- I rocked and rocked that sweet baby boy 'til his Daddy got home.
Somehow, I remained pretty together, but when Aaron got there (in record time) I was more than happy to hand him over; Aaron thrives in emergency situations,where I just want to ball up in the fetal position. Aaron announces that he's broken his two front two teeth off and instructs me to call a pediatric dentist. I call several and we go to the first one that will see him immediately.
Aaron rode in the back seat and held the boo-bear. We walked in the dentist and took some x-rays, he was SO good and calm. Seriously the most pitiful thing I've ever seen.
The X-Rays reveal that the teeth were not broken off, but instead pushed up into his mouth. At the point I was hopeful- maybe they could just pull them back down, right? No. The dentist tells us they need to be extracted... yes, extracted. She said it had cut off all the little roots and if they didn't they would absess. We weren't allowed to stay back there but they swaddled him up really tight and gave him some numbing shots. After the longest 15 min ever, they brought him out and gave us our toothless boy. I had not cried all morning until they handed me a box with his little toofies in it.
By this time Lynda was here too and no child has ever been swooned over like Sawyer was. Aaron went to Target to clear out the yogurt and ice cream aisles. He actually found quite a bit of soft food!
The Tooth Fairy even talked to Santa and brought out a present early ... he needed it.









With his new tooth fairy happy ... ;)

That night we decided we needed a little holiday cheer so we put up the Christmas Tree ... even little man helped.



I can promise you that the tree now looks nothing like that. It's practically bare from about halfway down. But it's still standing, so that's something.

And our little toothless boy is still smiling ... We've laughed saying he'll be asking for his two front teeth for many Christmas' to come.

Our First ER Visit.

Tonight we had an "incident." Avery was sitting in her booster chair, in the dining chair, pulled up to the kitchen table. For one reason or another the seat was not strapped in. When Avery is done eating a lot of times she will push away from the table, scooting the chair away. Well, this time when she did this the loose chair flipped out throwing Av into the table. She hit right under her left eyebrow. It scared her to death! If Aaron hadn't been right there I might have lost it completely. It was POURING blood. Avery was screaming. Dalton was crying. I was frantic. It was a mess.
Thankfully, Aaron pretty much thrives in these situations. He is completely cool, calm, and collected. He doesn't miss a beat. We racked our brains for RNs close by to see if we should take her in. It was kinda small, but would NOT stop bleeding! His Aunt Carol Ann came over and said she thought Av needed a stitch.His mom happened to be at bible study near by and rushed over to watch Bubba. And off we went.
When we arrived at Arkansas Children's Hospital we were greeted by a metal detector and about 6 big policemen. Not security guards in a golf cart- policemen. Cocked and Loaded. Exactly whom I want to see when I'm escorting my baby girl into the hospital with a busted head. Super.
We were sent to triage where they told us that kids that come by ambulance or have respiratory symptoms rank a 1, Avery was a 2. And, they thought she might have to be sedated because it was too close to her eye to try to hold her still for stitches, therefore she couldn't eat or drink for the duration of our stay. The waiting room visit alone was about about 2 and a half hours. Can I repeat that?? We stayed in a hospital waiting room for 2 and half hours with no juice or snacks.......... Holy Moly. Lisa told me we were lucky though because most of the time at Children's whenever you come in with an injured child they seperate the two parents for questioning to make sure you weren't abusing your child. I would have lost it.
We were then taken to a back room that reminds me of what hell must be like. Crying babies, screaming kids, HELLACIOUS. The doctor would come in and scrub the heck out of her eye and get her all worked up. We would spend 12 minutes calming her down, just in time for them to come in and do it again. Hell, I tell you.
We hugged and hugged and coddled and coddled. It was pitiful. Of course by this time it's almost midnight, so she was exhausted on top of everything else.
This was a funny moment in the video below. One of the very, very few and far between. She had her duck and was just a mothering it away. Anything we did to her, she did to the duck. She's so funny.






Then the doctor came in and said in order to do stitches they would have to sedate her (which we had already agreed was not going to happen). So they were going to do Dermabond on it. Which essentially is a glue. We still had to all hold her down so that it didn't get in her eye. They cleaned it out by pouring a whole bottle of cleaning solution in it, she was soaked. And then applied the glue. The worst part was that one eye was covered and the other was half open and I was really all she could see. So through shaking screams she would shriek "MMAAMMAA!!!!" I almost died. She literally cried herself to sleep during this part. The poor little thing was just screaming and shaking. Oh.My.Lord.
Afterward she was trying to put on her fleece and pointing to the curtain saying "Bye Bye! Please! Bye Bye! Please!!!!!!!!!!!" Because for some reason it took forever to discharge us. We were SO ready to leave. Children's ER doctors and nurses seriously have one of the worst jobs ever. I could NOT work there.
We finally made it home around 1 or 1:30 a.m. She was zonked out. Never even made a move. Poor little thing.
Unfortunately, our Moms and More luncheon was the next morning. Agh! I was so disappointed! It was a common theme this year- every luncheon, brunch or special thing, my kids got sick or some crisis happened before. It was ridiculous. My leader even joked with me last week saying "don't tell your kids the luncheon is next week Rebekah, you know they'll get sick." But obviously Moms 'n More wasn't gonna happen this morning either. Avery slept until 9 and Dalton slept until 10:30 ... He is going to have to slow down on his growing.
Here are some pics of our horrible trip to the ER! (Of course I took pictures!)


On our way to the hospital ... Before I knew she couldn't have juice and snacks.


Aaron is such a good Daddy


She is already such a little "Mommy"




After one of the lovely "scrub sessions"


Post Dermabond ...


Finally home safe and sound. What a night.