Pumpkin Patch Gone Wrong

After one false start the weekend before, we finally made it to the pumpkin patch after church yesterday. The weather was nice, the children were hyped up on diesel fumes from the Twactor Twain (such a ridiculous name), and everyone was happy. 

We started in the inflatable park because that's what we always do, and they were bouncing and sliding everywhere. We were, too. Luke was like a little ping pong ball zipping from one slide or bounce house to the next. Unlike his sister who screamed like a banshee from inside one of the bounce houses because I moved out of her line of sight, he did not give a lick for where we were or what we were doing. He was sliding, and jumping and running. To top off his good day, one of his friends from soccer and her big sister were there, too, so they were all playing together. 

His energy was so frenetic, I should have known something was going to happen. Then it did.

This picture came from Grandmother's phone, but I think I caught a similar one. I haven't looked yet, I just know I was poised to take a picture of him and the girls sliding together, then I was dropping the camera and running. He screamed and screamed until he was a snotty mess, then he kept screaming. When we couldn't get him to calm down, and his arm and hand started swelling, we decided to take him to the ER. 

We got a sack of ice from the counter at the pumpkin patch and loaded him into the car. I rode in the backseat because all he wanted was to "tuddle"; we did the best we could while buckled into our seat belts. It was a nerve-wracking ride to Children's. Traffic was heavy and Luke screamed nearly the entire way, until he fell asleep right before we got there. He did relent and let me put the ice on his arm, so the swelling had already gone down significantly by the time we saw the nurse.

On the ride there, I was convinced it was broken. I even thought other parts might be broken from the way he was clenching his entire body with the screams. Once he got a dose of Motrin in him in the triage room, he started using his hand again. While the nurse practitioner examined him, his reaction to the poking and prodding was much milder than it had been since he tumbled down the slide, but they went ahead with x-rays to see what they could see. 

When he didn't cry as the x-ray tech moved his arm around, I was pretty convinced that it wasn't broken. Nearly as soon as we got back to our room, the nurse practitioner came back to confirm that the x-ray was normal and that his pain was from the friction burn that stretches from the middle of his forearm to his knuckles. We showed him the picture above, and he started checking him all over again to make sure the other arm/shoulder/collar bone wasn't broken, but by that time Luke was telling him, "It's dood [good]." The nurse came in to dress it and gave us instructions to keep it smeared with Neosporin and covered so he doesn't hurt it or get it dirty. We left there with a nice green boxing glove.

He didn't complain at all about his glove until bath time when he told me it felt better and he wanted it off. I took it off to bathe him, but the bath water burned, so he was ready for me to wrap it up again. Unfortunately, CVS only had white wrapping, so his glove is just boring white now, but he doesn't care - he doesn't even want me to take it off to put more medicine on it. 

So, Dave, Luke, and I ended our pumpkin patch trip at the ER. We left Ella behind with Grandmother, Papa, and Jake with the mission to pick a pumpkin for Luke. She did, and she was a very understanding big sister even if she was disappointed that he didn't come home with a cast that she could write her name on. At bedtime I told her I was sorry that we had to leave early and I was glad she had a good time anyway, and she said, "It's okay, Mama. He really needed you to go with him."

The one on the end had an unfortunate accident with a soccer goal.
We love him anyway.

We didn't get our mom-and-kids-in-the-pumpkin-patch-picture this year, but Dave and I have already decided we'll just sub in the slide picture (which we refer to as "The Break" even though it ended up not broken) to commemorate our abbreviated trip. It was good day, even with the harrowing trip to the ER with a screaming kid. We were spared the trauma of trying to keep a cast (on the hand of a boy who likes to touch public toilets) clean. 

And next year, we'll probably save the inflatable park for last - 'cause that kid is still going to want to slide.

Around the House

While there have been stories worthy of telling, most of them involve people who don't live in my house, so I don't feel comfortable sharing them here. Otherwise, we're in one of those times in life where it's good and busy and just not much to tell about, so I haven't blogged much. However, I have collected some quotes from around our house and life that need recording for posterity. 

"Mommy, my head not working." - That's how Luke told me he had a headache when he had a nasty cold right after school started. He loves school, and he tells us all about it at all the time. It's so different with him. Ella only gave up a few details in conversation, but she played and played school and reenacted everything so we knew exactly what she was learning and the classroom politics. Luke just tells us. He sings songs that I never heard Ella sing but I know she learned, he seeks out the letter  and number of the week and points it out to us excitedly, and he tells us all about who did what and what his teacher said that day. It's so weird to have a child so forthcoming with information.

As we watched Ella at soccer practice one evening, Luke was trying to engage a little girl in play but she was busy watching a video on her mom's phone. He kept walking up and watching over her shoulder, then coming back to me to tell me to ask her to play. He wouldn't ask her himself. Then this conversation happened.

Me: He's stalking her, but he won't talk to her.
Dave: That's what we do.

Interesting. I never pegged him as someone who would be hesitant to talk to a girl, but we did know each other for years before he actually asked me on a date.

"It's hard to live without a mama for a week!" - That was Ella's protest when I was preparing for my business trip at the end of September.

"He can find me by looking for the trail of sparkles I leave when I walk. I can find him by following his footprints." Out of the blue, while following Luke down the trail to Bulldog Bridge after the football game, Ella revealed to us that she is, in fact, made of glitter. I suspected as much. Sugar and spice? Meh. Glitter? Absolutely.

Me, too, Kid.

Some Fridays, I'm like, "Whoop! It's Friday, let's do this!" Other ones, I would prefer to just sleep through it and start over again on Monday. Today is the latter. It's been a rough week.

Luke just came slap-slapping down the hall to the kitchen to snake himself into my arms until I was fully holding him without even realizing it. That's what he does when he needs a "tuddle." I snuggled him as much as he snuggled me while I tried to find out what he wanted for breakfast.

Me: What do you want for breakfast? Oatmeal?
Luke: To take to Gigi's? (he always takes his breakfast with him since his school starts a full hour later than Ella's)
Me: Yes. Do you want to take oatmeal?
Luke: Peanut butter sandwich.
Me: Ok.
Luke: I want to eat it here.
Me: (with his tentacles still wrapped around me) Do you want me to make it now?
Luke: ..... No, Monday. (as he snuggled tighter)

All I could think was, "Yes. Exactly."

But, I'm telling myself, "Whoop! It's Friday, let's do this!"

"Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." Philippians 2:14-15