It ain't right

Saturday was GORGEOUS.  We had a fabulous day of outdoor work and activities and then decided to take the kids to the park for dinner.  We tried a new park we'd never been to before - Lion's Park - which sits on the water in Bremerton.  Might be my new favorite park. The kiddos ran and played, Max and Ty threw the ol' pig skin around a ton, and there was this really cool tree that I wanted to get a picture of the kids on.  Pictures were successful and Max and Kelly went off to play.

Ev wanted to hang in the tree a little longer, so I stayed with him, Tuck in my arms.  Ev was trying to climb higher onto a branch when he lost his footing and fell onto his back/side (not to be confused with his backside).  He wasn't very high, but crashed his back pretty good on more branches.  Ty ran over to assist since I had Tuck in my arms.  Ev was crying pretty good for a few minutes and we took turns consoling him.  Then he was done and we finished up a great night at the park with our little fam - a walk on the pier, slides, climbing on awesome Orca statues, lots of running around.  As we drove home I felt so happy and content with my little family and the life we have.

The plan was to head home and Ty was going to give the kids baths and put them to bed while I ran to the store for some last-minute Easter stuff and a few things to make cookies for my Primary class. I thought I would help him get the kids into the bath before I left.  I was in the other bathroom when Ty brought Ev in and says to me, "Look at this."  Everett was fussing when he tried to sit down in the water and Ty was looking for the cause...he had a pretty big gash/hole in his *ahem* scrotum!  It looked awful.  We had NO idea how it got there.  Did something happen as he was trying to get in the bath?  We asked questions and talked about it...and then it hit us - the tree at the park!  When he fell there must have been a branch or something that punctured him.  Notice how the tree is, how it grows up with lots of branches from the ground?  That's our best guess as to what happened, and I think it MUST have been.

We took some pictures and texted them to one of Ty's doctor brothers for an opinion.  He said that we definitely needed to get it looked at.  We weren't sure what to do - take him to the ER?  We looked all over the peninsula (and even on the other side of the water) for an urgent care that was open past 5 or 6 p.m. on a Saturday.  I hate to say it, but the $ was a consideration.  The ER is SO much more expensive than urgent care for our insurance plan.  We were trying to decide if it could wait until morning when an urgent care would be open.  But THEN Ty found a 24-hour urgent care about 30 minutes from us.  Ty has handled the past two urgent care traumas and so I wanted to take this one.

I loaded my boy, his blankie, and the stuffed animal Max had convinced Ev would help him if he had to get stitches {Max was VERY worried about Ev getting stitches, especially in such a sensitive area} into the van and headed for Port Orchard.  He chatted happily most of the way and asked me several times if he was going to get a shot {I think Max sneakily told him it was a possibility even though I asked Max to keep all of that to himself}.  I kept trying to avoid the question and change the subject; I didn't want to tell him that I thought a shot would be the least of his problems.  He fell asleep about 10 minutes before we got there {it was about 9:30 p.m.}  We got to the Harrison Urgent Care and it was pretty dead.  I thought it would be quick.  I was wrong.  We waited quite a while to be called back.  Ev slept on my lap the whole time and then he slept like a champ while the nurse weighed him, took his temp, and checked his blood pressure.  She thought it was so funny.  She took us into a room and said it would be 5-10 minutes.  Ev kept sleeping and about 45 minutes later I was starting to think we'd been forgotten {It was about 11:15} so I went and found someone to have them check it out for me.

The doc came in about 10 minutes later.  He was super nice; Ev woke up as he came in and was not thrilled about anything that was happening.  Immediately the doctor said, "Oh yeah, that's going to need some stitches."  I tried to prepare Ev a little bit while the doc stepped out to get a nurse, but how does one exactly prepare a 3-year-old boy that he's about to get stitches...let alone stitches where he was going to be getting them?  The doctor came back in saying, "Man, what a guy!  Not many guys would be able to say they had their scrotum ripped open and then went on playing like it was nothin'!"  The nurse held his legs, I held his arms and upper body and just got super close to his face and talked to him so he couldn't see what was going on.  As I was holding him there and he was crying, I was thinking, "Why the heck did I want to come?!  Why didn't I send Ty?!"  But I had on my game face {well, my sympathetic smiling mom face} and did my darnedest to make it better for him.  I thought it was awful.  The doc said he was super impressed with Ev and expected it to be MUCH worse than it was.  Perspective, I guess.

So that is the story of how Everett D ended up with three stitches {the doc kind of wanted to do 4, but there was bleeding and he didn't want to wait for it to stop while he was stitching and prolong the agony} in a place where no boy or man should have stitches.

And for the past FOUR days he has had the stomach flu with a trip to the pediatrician because I was {unnecessarily} worried.

It just ain't right.

ONE rad little boy

**I wrote this while we were driving home from Vegas on Sunday...I made my baby boy sit in a car seat for five hours on his birthday.  Poor fourth child.**

My sweet baby boy will officially be one today at 2:40 pm. I jut read over my post about his delivery. I could almost feel the contractions and the emotions of the days and weeks leading up to that miraculous moment of meeting my littlest man. Those last weeks of pregnancy were some of the most difficult weeks of my life (because of the incredibly miserable PUPPP rash). This morning as I held Tucker (who is usually very wiggly) in my arms, he was still and I whispered in his ear how grateful I am that he is in our family, how much I love him, how I felt the very moment he was born, and that I would go through the misery all over again because the joy and privilege of having him in our lives heavily outweighed the discomfort. After I was done talking he laid his little head on my shoulder with his arms draped over mine for a moment. I felt that his spirit understood. Man, I love this little fella!

Tuck gets all sorts of attention and he loves it - he's still Mr. Personality when I take him to the store and people love the smiles he readily dishes out. His brothers and sister often proclaim him to be "the CUTEST baby in the world" and are super cute with him. Kelly has been sad about him turning 1 because it means he's growing up. :) Such a mama.

Tucker is a delightful little man. He really goes with the flow. Our life (swim lessons, play group, school pick-up, etc) doesn't always lend to the two naps he'd like every day, but he remains his happy little self even though I know he'd rather be in bed.

I think he'll be a full-fledge walker in the next month or less, but for now he really likes cruising with our fingers. Something I don't want to forget: Tuck sits on my lap sometimes to watch the kids. Pretty soon, though, I feel his chubby hands slide down my arms until they find my hands. Then he will run his hands along mine until he finds my two index fingers. Next he'll slide his bottom off of my lap and fully expects that I will jump to my feet so we can cruise around the room. I love it. I want to remember every sensation of that - his tiny hands wrapped around my fingers, his little body sliding down my legs....and a few steps in, he leans his head way back so that he can look up at me and smile/laugh. I can't help myself when he does that and I have to lean down and kiss his face a bunch. It usually turns into a game. He'll take a few steps and throw his head back expectantly, waiting for the kisses he knows will come. I love it.

Two bummers for our little guy: eczema (horrible) and a clogged tear duct that doesn't seem to be working itself out. We'll see what happens with that, asking the doc at his checkup tomorrow.

We love Tuck's mimic laugh...every time someone laughs, he throws his head back and joins in.  Ty said something about his "imitation laugh" and Kelly now calls it his "invitation laugh".  No chance I'll correct her, but I'm sure Max will.

  

  

The faux-hawk.  I can't give it up.  It was a natural phenomenon with his newborn hair and I loved it so much that it's my hairstyle of choice for his big-boy hair now.

Brother is anxious to get going with the big kids! Since he started taking a bottle at about 9 months he generally wants to take it sitting up so that he can see all of the action (there always seems to be a lot of it at our house.) He wants to be wherever his brothers and sisters are, which resulted in him climbing the baby gate a few months ago! Say wha?! He'd put his toes into the tiny holes on the baby gate and get himself over. So the baby gate was gone early and I have had to let him venture on the stairs by himself a little earlier than I normally do with my babes. But he's a champ! He seems more sure of his body and abilities and so I stay close enough to keep an eye but far enough to let him do his thing and have some independence.

I feel so blessed to be a mom and privileged to have Tucker's particular spirit and personality in our home. Happy Birthday to our littlest man!