Saturday, May 28, 2011

I didn't think it would happen this soon


It's been a crazy week!

Last Saturday Brooklyn had her last soccer game, then the end of season soccer party. After that the kids and I went to a dear friends baby shower. It was a long day and I was so tired when we finally got home. I sat down on the couch with my laptop to upload the pictures from the day while the kids watched TV.

Travis climbed onto the coffee table and was dancing when his right leg slipped off the edge of the table causing him to drop onto his shin on the edge of the coffee table and then fall to the ground. It happened so fast! He grabbed his left leg and started screaming in pain, so I scooped him up and rocked him hoping and praying that he would push away from me at any moment and run off to climb more furniture.

No such luck...He screamed any time I tried to put him down.

I called my husband who had just gotten to a friends house for a BBQ and told him what happened and that I was heading to the ER. He met us there, but thought that I was overreacting until he held Travis and saw how he was acting. After about an hour we went in for x-rays and the technician said he didn't see anything and that maybe it was just a bad bruise. He took another film and had to hold Travis's leg pretty firmly to get him to hold still and said "I don't see how this could be broken with the way he is fighting." We went back into the waiting room and after awhile I told Jon he could go back to the BBQ. No point in both of us having no fun, right? Especially if it just ended up being a bad bruise.

While we were waiting, Brooklyn started crying and was holding her left leg. She was in real pain. At first I was mad, thinking that she was being a drama queen, but then I realized what was going on. Sympathy pain. I explained to her that she loved her little brother so much that she was feeling his pain. After that she smiled and started to feel better.

After almost 5 hours in the ER we got called into the Triage area and I was told that he broke his leg. Both bones. Tibia and Fibula...non displaced buckle fracture. I was in shock. My 19 month old son had just broken his leg. The Ortho Tech said that he was glad that I was still there. Seriously? What kind of parent would leave? I told him that I would have sat out there all night if need be.

There were no rooms available for quite awhile and he wanted to get us out of there as soon as possible so he asked if I minded him splinting the leg in the Triage walkway. I quickly agreed and sat in a chair with Travis on my lap while the Ortho Tech put the splint on, then they gave me the discharge papers and we were out!

I called Jon on the way home and asked him to get Travis some Ibuprofen for the pain. Travis and Brooklyn slept in bed with me while Jon slept on the couch and neither Jon or I got much sleep. I kept getting kicked in the face and was so freaked out about hurting his leg. It was pretty stressful.

Here is the splint on the first night.

Sunday I was so tired and was so sad for my sweet little boy with a broken leg. I was feeling like the worst mom in the world. He kept pointing at the splint and saying "Want out? Please? Want out?" Ugh. Broken heart. I put him down for a nap and sobbed on the couch with a cup of coffee. Full on Ugly Cry. I was so tired and overwhelmed. A 2 1/2 hour conversation with my sister and a plethora of supportive comments and messages on Facebook helped me to come back to reality.

Monday morning I called the Orthopedic doctor they had referred me to and got an appointment for Thursday afternoon. I guess there had been many breaks over the weekend and since his breaks were non-displaced he wasn't a priority. I got that. No big deal.

On Monday night, exactly 48 hours after he broke his leg I look over at him standing up against the highchair, just in time to see the splint slide down his leg and hang at his ankle right bellow the break. I tried to slip it off the rest of the way, but he kept fighting me so I called Jon to come home and help me take the splint off. I left Brooklyn at home with Jon while Travis and I headed back to the ER to get a new splint.

This time we were out in 2 hours with a splint that went up over his knee. It took me, the Ortho Tech and 2 nurses to hold Travis still enough to get it on him. Even then it was not the prettiest splint to look at;) My boy is a fighter for sure! I love his strength and endurance...attributes that will serve him well in life.

Before the battle of the second splint.

And After. My poor baby:(

My sweet happy boy:)

Thursday we had our cast appointment and the Dr looked at the x-rays and said "Yeah, so he definitely broke his leg!" I haven't seen them, but the way everyone keeps talking it must be quite obvious. I think I may need to see these;) Maybe frame them on his wall or put them in his scrapbook(Ha! Like I have time to scrapbook).

To get the cast on him they had me sit on the bed with Travis on my lap and then it took two of them to get his leg wrapped. He screamed so loud and so long that everyone was giving us the sad look when we walked out of there.

My 19 month old son in his first cast.

Travis is adjusting just fine and gets around with no problems. I almost wish he couldn't, but there is no holding this boy of mine back;)

We go back in 3 weeks to check his leg for growth to see if we need to put a new cast on.

I had a feeling I would be dealing with this with Travis...I just didn't think it would happen this soon.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Gretel Puppet

Brooklyn came home from school one day and handed me this "pattern"...

...and this head.
It was in a paper bag.
A head in a bag.
It was a little creepy to say the least.

(The kids made the heads at school and after seeing them I have to say that this one is a little less disturbing than most.)

There was also a letter asking me to make this head into a puppet.
Had this stuff come home to me last year, you would have found me in the fetal position, crying and rocking back and forth in the corner.

Yep. I would have been terrified!

Reason #237 why I am glad that I learned to sew.
Being the procrastinator that I am,
I waited until the night before it was due to get started.
**Grins sheepishly**

I stayed up until about 2:30 AM, sewing, cursing, seam ripping, 
and sewing some more...It was a LONG night!

I changed up the pattern and ended up with something that I think turned out pretty cute.

This picture makes it look a little wonky,
but it was just my stellar late night photography skills.

Jealous?
Yeah, I thought so.

I did a gathered skirt with an apron...

...and a flat felled seam on the skirt.

Here she is with her head glued on.

I tried using a hot glue gun at first, but the glue kept cooling before I could get the fabric slipped over the neck, so I ended up using my trusty E6000 glue and it worked great!

Okay, so her hair is a little sad looking,
but it was 2 AM at this point and I was high from the E6000 fumes.
Ventilate people!

Hmmm...maybe I will make the poor dear a bonnet. ;)

Brooklyn was so happy with her and wanted to have a little photo shoot with her Gretel puppet before they went off to school together.

Brooklyn and Gretel.

Brooklyn is a 2nd grader in a 2nd/3rd combo class,
so this year she gets to be a part of this 3rd grade project.

Next year when she is in 3rd grade and does this,
I will be much more prepared and my puppet will be way sicker(in the good way).

And maybe, just maybe, I will start on it before the last minute next year

I doubt it;)
Why do in advance, what I can stay up really late to do the night before?

Whew!

Have you ever made a puppet?
Any tips to help me make next years puppet ridiculously amazing?


Linking up with some of these blogs:
MONDAYS


Making Photobucket 

TUESDAYS

HOGPhotobucketGet Your Craft On Tuesday

WEDNESDAYS

My Craftie Life

THURSDAYS

giveawaysPhotobucketmake it wear itPhotobucket

Party ButtonHookingupwithHoH

FRIDAYS and WEEKENDS

A Little Knick KnackFantabulous Friday!  

 Photobucket Catch As Catch Can

UndertheTableandDreamingPhotobucketThe Girl CreativeThirty Hand Made Days
The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one."
~Jill Churchill