Like I said last week, Tuesday morning was rough in our house. Then Ethan fell out of bed on Tuesday night. Or at least we think he did. We're not quite sure how far up the ladder he was before we heard the "thump" and then crying.
Wednesday morning was even more challenging than Tuesday. But the time the girls made it to school, I already had more laundry to complete that day than was originally planned ... one child's pajamas and bedding (which I had JUST washed on Monday) and another child's pants.
And then the real excitement began. While Ethan and I were playing at an open gym hosted by the school district, Ethan fell and hit his head on a door hinge. I scooped him up and saw blood. Crap. We hustled into the nurse's office and soon realized that our day was going to include a trip to Urgent Care, most likely for stitches.
Before moving on, here's a few facts about Ethan.
1) He does NOT like blood.
2) He does NOT like the idea of going to a doctor when he is hurt.
3) He does NOT like getting attention when he is hurt.
Our time in the nurse's office at school was tough. Ethan was very loud, very strong, and very vocal about wanting to go home. My body was sore for a few days after the effort required to restrain him in order to prevent him from getting hurt any more.
But, by the time we made it into our van and were able to deal with things as we know how, he was fine. He still didn't want to go to the doctor's office, but I started using some of the skills and techniques that I learned from the best Child Life Specialists a few years back. We calmly talked about what might happen, we discovered that I had randomly put an ipad in our bag so we could have videos to distract us at the doctor's office in addition to the books we borrowed from school, and we made a plan to pick up lunch from Culver's on the way home as a treat.
Ethan had a few more tears on our way back to the exam room, but then we was SO brave. In the end, our boy received five stitches on his forehead and I had some bloody clothes to add to my laundry pile for the day.
Here's a shot of the stitches just before they were removed on Monday, first with a goofy face.
Then with a sweet face.
Seriously, though, Ethan is not a clumsy or reckless kid. I've been taking my kids to this open gym since Anna was 3 and NOTHING like this has ever happened to any kid when I've been there. It was just "one of those things".
And ... skin heals really fast. Faster than muscles, faster than bones, faster than the brain. A few stitches is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Actually, Ethan was back to normal as soon as his belly was filled with a tasty cheeseburger and some fries. It wasn't even too hard to keep him from doing anything crazy for a few days.
"No forward rolls, Ethan."
"Okay."
"No lycra swing, Ethan."
"Okay."
If the stitches were our only incident of the week, we would have been fine. But then the girls also had colds. Nothing too nasty, but sickish kids just throws off our life's delicate balance. Kate was checked out on Tuesday afternoon and then again on Wednesday. Anna threw up more than she has done in ages, and she had more tantrums than she has had in quite awhile, too.
We ended up having a big family meeting on Sunday and are going to try to tackle some of the behaviors that have been creeping back into life recently, not just from Anna, but from all of us. It seems like we need to have a meeting like this a few times every year. Let's hope it works!
But ... there was some good in the midst of the week, too. Matt came home a little early on Friday and we made Mischnick Pizza together for dinner. Then the kids had plenty of free time on Saturday morning while Matt and I accomplished a whole list of fall clean-up chores. Sometime in the afternoon we decided to invite some friends over for dinner and a campfire because ... why not? The evening temperatures were predicted to be in the 60s still, we didn't have to worry about getting up early because of daylight savings time, and we thought it'd be fun. I mean, how often do we get weather like this in November in Wisconsin?!
Sunday afternoon Matt took Anna and Ethan to the wheelchair park while I took Kate on a hike in the UW Arboretum. We had invited one of Kate's classmates along, but she, unfortunately, was out of town.
Kate and I had a great time anyway. This girl has such energy and such interest in the world around her.
She really wanted me to take some pictures of the fungus we found :)
In between moments of stopping to look at mushrooms, she skipped and/or ran for the first half mile or so.
Then we were brave enough to head through the tunnel that goes under the Beltline Highway which connects the two sections of the Arboretum.
Our snacks gave us an added boost of energy, but Kate spied a bench right when we both needed it.
An hour and a half of fresh air, sunshine, and hiking made for a tired Kate at the end of the day. I can't remember the last time she was actually asleep at 8:00! Granted, this was the weekend we changed the clocks, but it was still surprising.
We are hoping this glorious weather holds out a little bit longer; it really has been an awesome fall once we got past all that rain in September. And we are hoping that this coming week involves much less trauma and drama than the last.
Please pray that Ethan's cut continues to heal completely, that we find ways to help Kate release some of her energy this winter, and that Anna continues to find ways to deal with her life as it is.
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