Humpty Dumpty

My beautiful baby has had a couple of "incidents" over the last few weeks that have earned him the nickname Humpty Dumpty.  He has required all of the king's horses and all of the king's men (pediatric dentist and pediatric urgent care physician) to put his face back together again.  :(

I'm so glad that I took some pictures of his face before it was changed forever.  Sniff, sniff.  :(

While we were at Great Wolf Lodge, Owen took a nose dive off of the bed.  Bless his heart - it was just a total accident.  He leaned forward and got off balance and just face planted straight onto the floor.  I scooped him up to console him and, when he lifted his head off of my shoulder, there was blood on my shirt.  We went to the bathroom to assess the damages.  He had busted his bottom lip, so we knew that is where the blood was from.  We got it to stop bleeding and he was back to being his happy little self.

It wasn't until we were back home and I was feeding him dinner that I realized that he had broken off half of his front tooth!  I was (and still am) soooo upset about it.  I got him in to see our pediatric dentist first thing the next morning.  They did X-rays and assured me that it is not as bad as it looks.  It looks pretty bad.  :( 

It didn't chip far enough to affect the nerves and cause him pain - thank the Lord!  The dentist said that there is still a small chance that the tooth could change colors and that would indicate that the root was dead.  In that case, there would be no other option but to pull it.  That would be worst case scenario.  The tooth has not even fully come in yet, so the dentist wants to see him back in a month for an exam and more X-rays.  At that time, he may be able to file it down a bit to make it less noticeable.  If that doesn't work, then he will put a porcelain crown on it.  Oy vey!  His poor little mouth.  I'm just praying that our dentist can do something to fix my baby's smile.  

I was so upset during the exam, that I didn't get any pictures of Owen's first dentist appointment.  Mom fail.  :(  I thought about it in the parking lot and snapped a quick picture with his tooth brush. 

A week to the day after that incident, my boy took another tumble.  It was Clayton's first day of school, and we had just gotten home from picking him up.  I needed to lay Owen down for his afternoon nap, but I decided to let him toddle around downstairs and stretch his legs first (he had been in the car for an hour).  I was sitting on the couch sorting through Clayton's school folder.  I heard Clayton close the gate at the bottom of the stairs and saw him on the landing at the midpoint of our stairs.  Then, I heard Owen start that wailing cry that sends chills up your spine.  By the time that I rounded the corner, I saw him sitting next to the stair gate and he had blood covering his whole face and dripping off of his chin.  I panicked.  Like bad.  I screamed for Wade and he came running from the office.  We cleaned him up enough to see that his forehead was split wide open. 

I still have no earthly idea how he cut it on the stair gate.  I know that Clayton didn't have anything to do with it, because he was halfway up the stairs before Owen even fell.  I think that he must have just tripped or something.  I guess we'll never know.

I was too upset to think, so I told Wade to call Leah.  I joke that she is the other half of my brain, and that day she really was!  ;)  I knew that he needed stitches or something beyond what I could do, I just wasn't sure where to take him.  At Leah's suggestion, we loaded up to go to the Cook's Urgent Care near us. 

The bleeding had pretty much stopped, but we slapped a Cars band-aid on Poor Baby's forehead for the car ride.  Have you ever seen anything so pitiful?  Breaks my heart...

 He was happy by the time that we got there.  But, his cut was really deep.  I knew that it would leave a pretty wicked scar without some form of medical intervention.

 The nurses and doctor at Cook's were awesome.  They were armed with bubbles, play doh, and movies for all three boys.  :)  The doctor assured me that it was in the perfect spot for glue and that it would heal with less of a scar than if she stitched it.  They cleaned it up really well and then put a Novocaine gel on to cause the blood vessels to constrict and to ease the pain.  Sweet Thing was so tired by this point.  He was happy to snuggle while we waited for the Novocaine to take full effect.

He cried and screamed while they applied the glue.  Quite traumatic for my little fella - for his Mama too!  We cuddled some more...

 Then he was back to his happy self!  Paci smiles are the best.  :)

People have teased about him being a rough and tumble boy, but neither of these things were the result of him being rough.  They were just accidents.  He's a new walker and still a bit unstable.  He isn't a great judge of distance just yet, so falls are bound to happen.  It's just the age that he is.  I know that.  It makes me so sad, though.  I am so tempted to make him wear our Sesame Street tricycle helmet full time.  ;)  Hopefully, his head will heal with minimal scarring, and the dentist can fix his smile.  I'm ready for my precious boy's face to be back intact.  Love that boy so much!

Back to School - Second Grade Edition

School started last Monday (August 20th) for our big 2nd Grader!  He was less than thrilled that his summer is over, but glad to see his school friends.  He is really excited to be in the same class as several of his buddies.

Meet the Teacher was the Friday before school started.  It was a bit anticlimactic, because Clayton's Kindergarten teacher moved up to 2nd grade, and he will have her again.  So, they already know each other pretty well.  ;)  He did enjoy getting to see his new class room and figuring out who he is sitting next to.  That's a big deal when you are 7, apparently. 

The night before school started, we had a long family prayer time before bed.  Wade prayed for Clayton and for his 2nd grade school year.  We are praying that God will bless our boy this year as he learns both on campus and at home.  We pray that Clayton will grow closer to the Lord and that he will make choices that honor Him.

After the boys were in bed, we set the boys' backpacks out and left some fun back to school surprises.  :)  Drew doesn't start preschool for a few more weeks, but he got his goodies a little early.  He is so excited about preschool!!!  I'm sure that his first school experience will be heavily documented on the blog in the coming weeks.  Ha!

We got "apples" for the teacher.

Clayton woke up ready to start his day! 

I can't believe how much he has changed since Kindergarten.  This picture makes so happy/sad all at the same time.  Thrilled at who he is becoming, but painfully aware that he is growing up far too quickly for my liking.  :)/:(

Thanks to good 'ole Pinterest, we have a new back to school tradition.  I'll have the kids write their name on this chalkboard on the first day of school each year.  It'll be fun to see how their handwriting changes over the years.  :)

I love my crazy/precocious/sometimes sassy/still wants to snuggle when no one is looking/smart as a whip/heart of gold/can make me want to pull my hair out but I love him so much that it hurts, little boy.  I think this is going to be a good year for both of us!  I am really looking forward to learning right along side him two days a week this year.  I feel much more equipped for the homeschooling aspect of his education than I have the past two years.  I know that I still have soooo much to learn, but I finally feel like I am getting a the hang of it.  I just want to be the very best teacher to him that I can be.  It is a refining process, for sure. 

Back to School 2012 part one is now complete.  Now I need to shift gears and focus on getting my little Drew ready for preschool.  I'm so excited for him!

The Circus Came to Town...

With our 3 little monkeys, Wade and I often tease that "the circus is always in town."  Ha!  Last week, the actual circus - as in Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey - came to town.  We went to see them at the Fort Worth Convention Center on Thursday night.  It was our last big hoorah of Summer 2012, and it was a great way to finish out the summer.

Clayton had been to the circus when he was 3, but Drew & Owen had never been.  They all loved it!  We got to the arena super early so that we could do all of the pre-show activities.  We went to see all of the animals first.  We went through that pretty quick, because the boys were chomping at the bit to see the performers.

I thought it was so funny to watch this guy cleaning off the elephants with a leaf blower...

After a quick trip through the animal exhibits, we went inside to see some of the circus acts up close.  The boys thought that was so cool!

Apparently, Wade was chosen to perform with the clowns.  Our streak of being picked for audience participation continues!  Unfortunately, I had stepped away, so I missed seeing it.  Bummer!

Baby Blue Eyes was such a trooper.  He loved the lights and action.

Drew & I watched Asia the Elephant paint a picture.  Who knew that elephants were so smart?  I guess they really don't ever forget things.  ;)

We all loved the tight rope walkers.  Pretty amazing.

Me and my bunch of crazies...

3 of the cutest clowns in the place

Drew loved the cotton candy, but didn't want to get his hands sticky.  Ha!  Wade sat there and fed the sugar fluff to our little blond boy.  What a life, right?!?!

Jokers.  For reals.

After a brief intermission/opportunity for people to buy the highly overpriced merchandise, the tigers were the stars of the show.  Way cool.

When we were all trying to explain what a circus was to Drew, Clayton told him that they would shoot a guy out of a cannon.  Drew immediately said, "I WANT TO DO THAT!"  Ha!  Once Clayton explained that he would be on fire, Drew wasn't so brave.  He quickly said, "Daddy can do that."  Ha!

The elephants were really neat, too.

I'll tell ya what... those Ringling Brothers sure do know how to put on a circus.  I sure was happy to go home with the clowns that I live with.  :)

Goin' to the Lodge... Great Wolf Lodge

School started this week for us.  Boo!  I am not ready for our summer to be over...  Summer 2012 was pretty wonderful.  Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.  :(

We squeezed every last drop of fun out of our final week of summer.  Last week was filled with fun activities!  On Monday, we surprised the boys by taking them to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine.  They have heard the commercials on the radio and seen commercials, so they were pretty excited to get to experience it firsthand.  ;)  Wade had earned a free night through the website where he books his travel for work, so our stay cost us $0.  Yipee!  That was right in our budget.  Ha!

We got there at 3:00 on Monday and went straight to the indoor water park.  My little fish children were all about getting in the water ASAP!  They were in their element!  After a few hours of water park fun, we went to our room to get changed for dinner.  Our room was so neat!  The kids had their own "cabin" with bunk beds, a twin bed, and a TV.  They were sooooo excited about their setup!

We let them hang out in there while we were getting ready.  Wade peeked his head in their portion of the room after about 10 minutes, only to find out that our eldest had charged $20 worth of "on demand" tv shows to our room.  Lovely.  We made a phone call to the front desk and they were kind enough to remove the charges and disengage the "on demand" option in our room.  Then we had a long talk with C-man about how "on demand" in a hotel room is very different than "on demand" with Verizon Fios.  ;)

Our side of the room was neat, too.

We went to dinner at a nearby restaurant and then went back to the hotel lobby for their bedtime story hour.  The boys were on the front row.  I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but Drew was sitting in Clayton's lap.  I am so glad that they have each other.  They are so sweet to each other (most of the time...).

After story time, we went back to the room.  It's kind of a tradition that "Fun Dad" sets up a candy bar when we are on vacation.  This "staycation" was no different - our kids got a healthy dose of sugar before bed.  :)

Between the bunk beds and Owen being in the pack n play, I was very nervous that my monkeys were not going to sleep well.  Thankfully, everyone fell asleep quickly and slept hard all night long.  Thank you, Lord!  I even had to wake Owen up at 10:00!  I guess that 3 hours of playing hard at the water park makes for a good night's sleep.

We were in the water by 10:30 and played until 6:00 - we all had the time of our lives!  Wade and I took turns hanging out with Owen while the other went on water slides with the big boys.  Clayton could ride all of the water slides and Drew could ride all but 2 of them.  My boys love seeing me scared on roller coasters and water slides, so I really played up the damsel in distress role.  ;)  I "screamed like a girl" on the slides and they thought it was hilarious.  I rode every slide there, I think.  I earned some major cool mom points - giving Fun Dad a run for his money.  Ha!

I loved hanging out in the wave pool with my little boys!  I think that was my favorite part.  We got a double tube and Drew laid in one half.  Owen sat in my lap on our side of the tube.  He laid his sweet little head down on my chest and we just hung out like that for half an hour.  I loved every minute...

We picked a good time to be there, because a "master builder" from Legoland was at the hotel to host a little competition.  Clayton and Drew were thrilled to participate.

While they did the Lego thing, I changed Owen into dry clothes and he took a poolside nap.  I was in Mama heaven snuggling with my boy.  :)

After a long rest, we were ready to play some more!  Owen was a big fan of the slides in the toddler area.  He would go down the slide and then climb up to go again - over and over again all by himself.  It was pretty cute to watch.

We had so much fun at Great Wolf Lodge!  I would definitely go back if Wade had another credit or if we got a super good deal.  I do think that the full price rate is crazy expensive.  Just a head's up for those of you with respiratory kiddos - the indoor water park doesn't have great ventilation.  By the end of the second day, Clayton was coughing a lot and said it was hard to breathe.  I can imagine that it would be really hard on a kid with full blown asthma.  If we go again, I would make sure to go in the summer when the outdoor water park is open.  It was nice to be able to go outside to swim when the fumes got to be too much.

I will say that the life guards were exceptional.  They were constantly moving and scanning the water - top notch.  I never saw any of them chatting or goofing off.  In the wave pool, the wolf would howl to alert you that the waves were about to start up.  Then the lifeguards would stand and concentrate on the water the entire time that the waves were going.  I was super impressed with all of the staff in the water parks.

 We had so much fun at Great Wolf!  Recently, I heard someone point out that we only have 18 summers with our children while they are under our roof.  I'd never thought of it that way.  I want to make every one of those summers count.  I definitely think that Summer 2012 will go down in the history books as one of the best!