We recently experienced the first broken bone of the family--Lydia broke her arm. How, you ask? A trampoline? The monkey bars? Scooter accident? No. No. and No. None of the usual suspects. She fell off the bed. Not a bunk bed or even a fall from jumping on the bed. Just fell off of our bed. Very boring. My kids are always crashing and are quite adventurous on the playground but surprisingly they have come away unscathed. Ben fell out of my parents loft recently--he was fine. Grace fell off the monkey bars at church--again, fine. Lydia innocently tries to scamper onto our bed, falls off and then --BAM-- broken arm. When she tells it somehow Ryan's underwear always get thrown into the story (which is lovely when she is telling it to strangers). When it happened she let out a blood curdling scream which is not usual for Lydia who is known for having a very low 'scream threshold' whether it is an injury, she has to throw up, a stolen toy or an insult--doesn't matter--same crazy scream. This time was maybe a little longer than her usual but was then followed by much more drama than is typical of Lydia (she screams big but then recovers fine, the same cannot be said for Grace who will happily entertain you with a list of her current ailments) and she looked like she was about to puke and we knew something was up. I was nearly certain that she had broken it but I didn't want to be that parent who rushes their kid to urgent care at the slightest injury so we iced and motrined her up and turned on a movie as a distraction. Long story short when she could barely move it and it was swollen despite the ice, we decided to get an x-ray which clearly showed her break so she got an adorable pink cast that Grace eyed with great envy (shout out to Dr. K for all of her amazing help).
So, it's been an interesting month. I had the girls signed up for a gymnastics class at the community center that we had to cancel due to the broken arm. A side note about the excursion to cancel--as I was at the desk canceling the class, Lydia starts screaming (same scream of course) and I look over and she is stuck halfway up the climbing wall on their indoor playground! So, I ran across the foyer to rescue her, leaving baby Jack sitting with the desk ladies. Just when I got back to the desk Ben starts hollering--another child stuck on the freaking climbing wall! Across the foyer I jogged yet again, all this under the scornful eyes of some of the--ahem--older patrons of the center who seem to have forgotten the trials of raising kids. At this point Lydia was loudly crying since she has been forbidden to climb the wall with her broken arm (such a mean mom) and the ladies at the desk had to shower her with stickers to get her to calm down. I have really tried to keep her off of scooters, bikes and the like but man it's hard. For example, the fateful injury occurred about 2 weeks before their 5th birthday (at one point she cried "I won't be able to eat my cake as well!!!"). We had already arranged for a bounce house (I know, I know. yes. a bounce house. feel free to judge but it was awesome. stay tuned) and the kids were all geared up for it. We were more worried about the other kids being mauled by a rock hard pink cast so we covered her arm in inflatable floaties (thanks Donna for the idea) and miraculously no one was hurt.
It is definitely different being on the other end of things. I flippantly sentence kids to casts and discuss cast care with families on a daily basis and let me apologize to all of those families right now. It is NOT easy keeping that thing clean and dry. We finally ended up using a trash bag with glad press and seal (miraculous stuff) but it was always a fight and the cast never stayed dry. never.
It is nearly behind us now. We had the cast removed a week ago. Sadly, it was not 100% healed so she is supposed to wear a splint when she is 'active' (so you mean when she is awake?). To be honest, I have been less than compliant about that. The day after her cast was off they learned to ride 2 wheelers without training wheels. Splint free. I didn't think they were going to be that active when we ventured outside, the bike thing just kind of happened. However, today when she crashed her bike and a neighbor we have never met had to carry her home, with a ridiculously fat lip and dripping blood from the mouth onto our lovely neighbor's white shirt she had her splint on! Hurray!
I just gotta say, I am definitely bumping to the higher insurance plan for our family next year. You just never know.
So, it's been an interesting month. I had the girls signed up for a gymnastics class at the community center that we had to cancel due to the broken arm. A side note about the excursion to cancel--as I was at the desk canceling the class, Lydia starts screaming (same scream of course) and I look over and she is stuck halfway up the climbing wall on their indoor playground! So, I ran across the foyer to rescue her, leaving baby Jack sitting with the desk ladies. Just when I got back to the desk Ben starts hollering--another child stuck on the freaking climbing wall! Across the foyer I jogged yet again, all this under the scornful eyes of some of the--ahem--older patrons of the center who seem to have forgotten the trials of raising kids. At this point Lydia was loudly crying since she has been forbidden to climb the wall with her broken arm (such a mean mom) and the ladies at the desk had to shower her with stickers to get her to calm down. I have really tried to keep her off of scooters, bikes and the like but man it's hard. For example, the fateful injury occurred about 2 weeks before their 5th birthday (at one point she cried "I won't be able to eat my cake as well!!!"). We had already arranged for a bounce house (I know, I know. yes. a bounce house. feel free to judge but it was awesome. stay tuned) and the kids were all geared up for it. We were more worried about the other kids being mauled by a rock hard pink cast so we covered her arm in inflatable floaties (thanks Donna for the idea) and miraculously no one was hurt.
It is definitely different being on the other end of things. I flippantly sentence kids to casts and discuss cast care with families on a daily basis and let me apologize to all of those families right now. It is NOT easy keeping that thing clean and dry. We finally ended up using a trash bag with glad press and seal (miraculous stuff) but it was always a fight and the cast never stayed dry. never.
It is nearly behind us now. We had the cast removed a week ago. Sadly, it was not 100% healed so she is supposed to wear a splint when she is 'active' (so you mean when she is awake?). To be honest, I have been less than compliant about that. The day after her cast was off they learned to ride 2 wheelers without training wheels. Splint free. I didn't think they were going to be that active when we ventured outside, the bike thing just kind of happened. However, today when she crashed her bike and a neighbor we have never met had to carry her home, with a ridiculously fat lip and dripping blood from the mouth onto our lovely neighbor's white shirt she had her splint on! Hurray!
I just gotta say, I am definitely bumping to the higher insurance plan for our family next year. You just never know.
