Just What the Doctor Ordered

I didn't think I'd fill up the "injuries" label on my blog so quickly!

One week and one day after C.'s stitches R. broke his left arm, the radius, at lunch recess on Monday. He fell off the monkey bars and landed on his hand. I almost didn't want to get his arm x-rayed because it's hard to tell if he's just being passionate. Dramatic reactions to injuries are R.'s forte. Do I take him in? Is he just being dramatic about the whole thing? Hard to tell. The school nurse told me he was crying for 30 minutes solid and didn't even notice that his elbow was bloody. So I decided to buy into the idea that maybe the drama was justified. And sure enough it was. So the fracture is called a green stick or slight taurus fracture because the bone bent, but did not crack. Wouldn't a gory picture go nicely here!?!

Ooh, the image of Dr. Pratt's leg with someone else's bone sticking out of it just came to mind. That was so unnecessary, ER writers!

The doctor said if he fell the same way at age 13, the bone would have definitely broken. Apparently young growing bones are harder to break or something. Either way, R.'s arm didn't need to be set so he has a fiberglass splint + ACE bandage instead of a cast with a sling. After the splint went on and the pain meds kicked in, R. was so excited about it all. He kept warning us that he'd bonk us on the head with his arm if he had to. His funny bone is intact for sure. He was the most popular kid in school today. (Does anyone else have memories of being totally jealous of the kid with the cast in elementary school? No jealousy from Dave, I'm sure.)

A big thanks to the lovely Mollie for being my emergency contact! I owe you one.

First Things First

Okay, so I have a lot to blog about. A broken arm, duct work, soccer. . . But this is way more important! Here's the egg-free cake recipe I've been telling people about:

Wacky Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift into bowl:
2 C sugar
3 C flour
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

add:
2/3 C oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 TBSP cider vinegar
2 C water

Mix well. Pour into greased pan. Sprinkle to with chocolate chips. Bake for 30 minutes.

So good. So moist (sorry, Maren). You know how yummy Costco chocolate chocolate chip muffins are? This recipe beats Costco's muffins!

Are You Kidding Me?

Memory lane . . . I was looking for some kids' books on Amazon and I wandered over to Jim Trelease's website. He wrote several guide books about what and why parents should read to their children. I'm a former librarian and lifelong bookworm, and his website is fascinating. (Better add "total nerd" to that description.)

He writes about an urban library. Tons of outdated material and no budget to replace them with new books. "Harry Potter? None. Gary Paulsen? One. Langston Hughes? None. . . . Not that the shelves were entirely empty. There were books on television (copyright 1955) and the telephone (1967), among others, that insult the young mind in search of reality on a printed page." http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch7.html#printaccess So sad. But ahhh, how those crazy 1967 copyright dates bring back memories of my Kaaawa School library!

So Trelease's assertion is that children succeed when they have access to print. Simple, right? I love Gary Paulsen's story. He had a librarian hand him a library card and a book. It changed his life. (Paulsen writes books like Hatchet, which was a favorite of my sixth graders.) Reading rocks.

Today's Etsy Pick

There's something wonderful about etsy! If you haven't wasted an afternoon on that site yet, I highly (guiltily) recommend it. Everything is handmade, so crafty people like me can steal lots of great ideas. And crafty people who have to spend their time on housework (read blogging) can buy other crafty people's stuff! My sis-in-law posted about felt food on etsy the other day. Felt food led me to mini food. How cute is this? The Hershey's Kiss cookie is my fave (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_20&listing_id=11319150). I did a search for "miniature food." Too much fun!

Words of Wisdom

I yoinked this quote off of Janet's blog because it's amazing:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."~Maryanne Williamson

Thanks for letting your light shine.

Post Follow-Up

Last fall I posted about a friend in our ward who lost her baby. Today she was in the Spokesman Review (local newspaper). Visit her blog kunz-family.blogspot.com to read the article.

Quality Time Stinks

The boys, daddy included, play soccer and R. is also in cub scouts. Just two official activities. But tonight is our only stay home evening all week. Tuesday-soccer, Wednesday-scouts, Thursday-more soccer, Friday-more scouts. Can you imagine how crazy life would be if they had piano lessons or went to [insert additional sport here]? Seriously! We went from quantity time this summer to quality time. . . where did my boys go? While we're on the subject, Ben's at church on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, but that's a post for another day!

One Baby, Two Stitches

How do I love the emergency room? Let me count the stitches! Poor C. was standing up on a dining room chair when she toppled over, cutting her bottom lip. Baby teeth are so sharp! Two of her top teeth went right through her lip. She wasn't the least bit brave (shame on you, you 15 month-old baby) and cried lots and lots in the ER. She wasn't fooled one bit by the sweet-talking nurses telling her it'd be okay. That's what the nurse said on Wednesday right before they gave her her immunizations--stuck needles right in her thighs! Poor wit-o girl.



Here are our ER visits and WHY we decided the injuries were bad enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room:

1. J. jumped off our bed as a 2 year-old and hit his face on the wall. We found out that kid noses are just cartilage. I'm glad we took him in just to be safe, his whole nose and cheeks turned purple when he hit!

2. A first grader, R. and his friends were at the park playing "ice cream machine" with their upturned bikes. R tried to stop the chain from spinning by grabbing it with his fingers. He broke his ring finger and pinky on his right hand. We knew it was a good idea to take him to the ER right away. His pinky was hanging on by a small bit of skin!

3. S. was swinging ona small round table at the chapel when it tipped over and crushed her fingers. Same hand as R! She broke her ring finger and needed stitches. We didn't know if her injuries were bad enough, but there was an RN at the chapel that night and she recommended we take her in because of how the skin was split open. I didn't think there would be any broken bones. The tabletop was small and she was being very brave, not too much crying at all. She just kept repeating "I didn't know that was going to happen!"

We did have one incident I wish I could change. (Should have been a trip to the ER, but wasn't.) At age three, R's friend threw the base of a swing and it hit him right on the cheek. It immediately turned black and blue, but since there was no blood we didn't take him to the ER. After the discoloration went away we noticed that his smile was no longer symmetrical, the swing caused muscle damage to his cheek.