In the Blink of an Eye ...

One minute, you're just a kid without a care in the world ... a big boy who's busy conquering the world - playing xbox, reading Harry Potter, riding your new big boy bike without training wheels, playing with toys in your play room. 

The next minute you're wondering what in the world happened. And spending about five hours at the local emergency room. Good thing Grammy works there, and several of her friends are on shift to take good care of you.

This, boys and girls, is what happens when you tangle the front wheel of your big boy bike with the front wheel of an adult mountain bike. It topples you over onto the pavement, and then it topples the adult bike over on top of you. And even though you're wearing your trusty Hot Wheels helmet, going face first into the pavement is a hard way to go.

You spill quite a bit of blood on the pavement and everything around you. You get a gash on your lip that requires two dissolvable stitches. You scrape, scratch and bruise your chin, your lips, your nose and your forehead. You hit so hard that your lip and nose swell up to more than twice their normal size. You get a CT scan to rule out a broken nose or any other broken bones. And you also discover you have an ongoing, chronic sinus condition (you know, from the CT scan looking for broken bones).

Our big boy was incredibly brave throughout the whole ordeal. After the initial fall, he didn't even cry. Everyone told him what an amazing job he was doing, staying calm and helping them as they took care of him. Everyone, from the doctor and the nurses and the techs, complemented his bravery and toughness.

The good news is you get an excuse to stay home from school. The bad news is you have to follow up the next day with your dentist. Because the impact pushed your two new front teeth up into your gums, and also chipped one of them. You also cut and scratched your gums, which caused even more swelling inside your mouth.

The first dental visit revealed no major damage, but after a few x-ray pictures and an examination, we were referred to a pediatric dentist better equipped to handle "trauma" patients.

Lovely.

But the pediatric dentist was more reassuring. A small chip we can fix at his next regularly scheduled cleaning. No fractures. Both front teeth are a little loose, and they were pushed up a little, but she felt pretty confident they would tighten back up and come back in without much alteration.

You look pretty pitiful, and everyone once again compliments you on your bravery and toughness. They will even decide you probably need another day off from school to recover. But they put you on a "soft" diet for the next 10 days while you continue to heal.

There are perks to being injured. Like "soft" diet means a lot of yogurt and icees and even milkshakes. And people bring you gifts, to entertain you while you spend time recovering at home. 

And Mommy even feels sorry enough for you to take the family timer off the xbox.

 

And Daddy feels sorry enough for you to stop by the store and pick up more Skylander warriors for your new favorite xbox game.

 

And even though you still look pretty rough - scraped and bruised and swollen - you still snuggle down in bed and tell me that today was the best day ever. Because you got to stay home with Mommy on a school day (and brothers had to go). Because you had a milkshake for lunch. Because you got to play xbox half the day. Because you didn't have to go to speech therapy (Grammy and Pappy came over to help). And because everyone gave you gifts and made you feel so incredibly special.

 

But that's because you are.

 

You're my big, incredibly tough and brave boy. You took a really hard fall, barely cried, and made it through countless hours of poking and prodding and scanning without any real complaints. Because you look on the bright side, even when you probably are stiff and sore and could easily be angry and sullen. Because you smile, even when it hurts. And because you're still willing to get back on that bike and try again.

 

You know, in a few weeks, once the scratches and scrapes and bruises start to fade.

Snapshot Sunday

Good Boy, a photo by here we wander on Flickr.

Big Boy

And Quite Proud of Himself ..., a photo by here we wander on Flickr.

One of Connor's Christmas gifts this year was a new, bigger bicycle. He had struggled to learn to ride without the training wheels on his old one, partly because he was getting too big for it. His knees were crashing into the handle bars.

While we were away on vacation, there was some nice winter weather in our part of the world. Grammy took Connor outside and helped him master the art of riding his new bike.

And he's quite proud of himself about it.

There are still a few crashes here and there. Mostly when he doesn't think about the drop off between the sidewalk and the yard or when he comes across some of the broken sidewalks in our older neighborhood.

But all in all, he's doing well. And he loves going out to ride his bike with you (Grammy also left us her bike, so we could ride with him). Guess an adult bike might be in our near future, too.

Now, who's ready to ride?

Best. Birthday Present. Ever.

Happy to Be, a photo by here we wander on Flickr.

Sawyer and Xander's new swing from Ikea. Oh yes, they like it. They sometimes even fight over who gets to be in it.

Right now, we're switching out the original cuddle swing with this one. But we're eventually going to put another hook in the kids' play room. One swing will stay in Sawyer's room, and the other will stay in the play room. You know, right next to the tunnel and the body sock. Perhaps we should call it the therapy room.

Regardless, we have three happy boys. They all enjoy it.

Toothless

It comes in waves, apparently ... the loss of teeth. We have to keep that tooth fairy on her toes.

Xander lost his first tooth about a week ago. Grammy is pretty sure it came out during dinner one night, at which point he put it on the table near Connor's plate. Because Connor picked something up and said "That looks like a tooth!" but it got lost in the chaos of dinner. That's our theory anyway.

Next is Sawyer. He actually hasn't lost a tooth yet. It's still stubbornly hanging on. Despite the fact that his tooth was actually the first one to become loose. Now it's twisted and crooked because the new tooth is coming in whether it ever comes out or not.

And then there's the original toothless. He still has gaps where his two front teeth are coming back in. And now he's lost another one on the bottom. He doesn't mind though, because that just means more money in his piggy bank. He's not sure he believes in the tooth fairy, but he still expects her to come. Ah, the logic of a seven-year old ...