Maniac McKay

Since my last post, McKay has fallen: down the stairs, head-first off the couch onto the hardwood, and off the highest platform on the playground at the park.  The park fall was by far the scariest.  He was on a platform that was probably 8 or 9' high, and I turned around just in time to see him in mid-air.  He landed flat on his stomach, with his forearms sort of under him.  I thought certainly something would be broken.  My first thought was, "My poor baby!!"  Followed closely by, "Urgent care and ER in one week.  Awesome."  Amazingly enough, he was barely hurt at all.  His forearms and cheek got scratched where he hit the wood chips, but it scared him far more than hurt him, thank goodness.
Sometimes I feel like such a bad mom because he always has serious face wounds, but I am trying to shake the guilt.  McKay is a full-throttle, high-intensity, active boy with zero fear.  I am learning that to prevent all injuries, I  would literally have to be one step behind him at all times.  Not possible.  I remove him from dangerous situations (ie: dancing on the kitchen table), but I have to just let him live and play and get hurt sometimes a lot.  It's hard for me, but I am learning.
The big blessing is that little kids heal SO QUICKLY!!  When I went into McKay's room to get him up on Tuesday morning, his eye wound was totally sealed up and already looked pretty great!  Now, less than a week later, it is hardly noticeable at all!  If I hadn't seen it myself on Monday night, I would never believe that it was as serious as it actually was.
We took the boys to Sonic on Friday night to sort of make up for the fact that our FHE was ruined.  It was a novelty for them to eat in the car.  For us, the novelty was that McKay was strapped in his carseat!!

Despite his reckless nature, McKay is an absolute delight.  He is consistently speaking in 6-8 word sentences now.  Some of my favorite things he is saying lately:

"I'm in da weave! (lead)" as he and Ty are racing around the house.

"Ah you kidding me?"

"I ah (have) no idea." 

"He swides down da pole on Chismas Eve.  No, Chismas is owa (over)."  Apparently Santa and firemen get a little mixed up in his mind!

And my least favorite thing he says:

"No!  I don't want to, Mom!"

Sweet boy.  I love him too, too much.  My heart can't take how much he gets hurt!

Another One Bites the Dust

Last night at Coldstone, McKay took a "header" that resulted in a giant goose egg on his forehead and a deep gash under his right eye.  His eye was bleeding profusely, so Adam dropped Ty and me off at home and took him to urgent care.  The doctor who treated him said that if it were anywhere else on his body, she would stitch it up, but since it was so close to his eye, she couldn't do that.  She said Adam could take him to the emergency room where they could sedate him and then stitch it, but that it wasn't a big enough laceration that that would be totally necessary.  She had to pull some of his bottom eyelashes out because she was afraid that they would grow into the wound and cause infection.  Adam said McKay was (understandably) screaming his head off.  I was SO, SO grateful that it happened at a time when he was around and could take him.  I wouldn't have handled that too well!

Last year, I was excited for January to be done with because of the "blah" factor.  This year, I am ready to be done with January because it has been a medical disaster month for our family! Just in the last six days, McKay has had three fairly major injuries:  one involving a finger being closed in a door and left there for about three minutes, one involving a crash into the exterior corner of a wall resulting in a gash down his cheek (you can see the remnant of that one in the second picture), and of course, last night's incident.  Between that, Adam's surgery, four cases of strep throat, and another trip to the doctor yesterday for an on-going condition that Ty is being treated for (not to mention his concussion before Christmas!), I am about DONE with doctors and hospitals!!  Here's hoping that we get all our sicknesses/injuries out of the way the first month of the year and the rest of the year we will be healthy and well!

Two Little Monkeys

After being cooped up in the house for a week with strep, my boys have been a bit rambunctious.  When a friend invited us to Little Monkey Business this morning, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get out and let them run wild.  And, though most of you probably don't much care, I know there are two certain grandmas out there that are likely a bit miffed that I haven't posted pictures of these little monkeys in a while.  They're not the best pictures ever--I couldn't get them to hold still for a single second!  Oh, well.  That's why we were there in the first place, I suppose.

Food for thought

I stumbled upon this article today.  Just thought I would share.  Enjoy!!

An Update

I haven't written in a while.  There's a pretty good reason for that.  Let's just say I haven't had much energy or desire to blog lately.  The last two weeks have been tough, to say the least.  Of course there was the surgery, and Adam was basically flat on the couch or in bed for several days after that.  That left me as both single mom and nurse.  It might not have been so bad, except that both boys were sick and McKay decided it would be a great time to start working on his two-year molars.
About the time that Adam could start moving and talking semi-normally again, he and I both got strep.  A couple days later the boys caught it, too, and McKay got an infection in one of his lymph nodes, as well.  There were some rotten days; the boys spent far more time than usual in front of the tv, and I tried not to feel too guilty about it.  The good news is we survived it, thanks to some wonderful antibiotics, a lot of prayers, and a really timely dinner brought over by a good friend on one of the worst days.
Adam returns to work tomorrow, and I am looking forward to getting back into "real life."  Now that we are all well again, I am not sure if I have ever felt so grateful for my health and the health of my family.  I guess sometimes you just have to experience days (and weeks!) as horrible as the ones we just finished so you can really appreciate how good you've got it!

Hopin' I win this...

This would be so awesome!!  I hope I win!

I am exhausted, but this can't wait.  I want to write it down now while the feelings are fresh and the emotions raw.

I am humbled.

Today Adam was scheduled to have reconstructive jaw surgery.  He had an injury from high school (he was kicked in the face while playing basketball) that has become worse over the years.  His bottom jaw has become terribly out of alignment, and it has caused him lots of pain.  The procedure was basically to break both the top and bottom jaw, pull the top forward, and push the bottom back as it should be.  Everything was  to be held together by plates and screws.

My dear friend, Heather, came to our home at 6:15 this morning so that our boys could remain sleeping, and she stayed with them while we went to the hospital.

When we went out to the garage, the tire on our car looked as though it needed air, so we decided to stop and fill it up at a gas station before we made the trek downtown.  Try as he might, Adam could not get the tire to fill up.  We decided to return home and get the other car.  As we got back on the main road, our tire went completely flat.  It was making a harsh grating sound, and it was obvious to us both that we weren't going to make it back home.  It was also obvious that we didn't have time to change the tire.  Adam was supposed to check in at the hospital at 7AM.

Several phone calls later, Heather was on her way to pick me up so that I could get the other car, a neighbor was at our house with the sleeping children, the hospital was notified of the situation, and the police were informed so that they would not be suspicious of the car left on the side of the road with the hazard lights flashing.

Even though we checked in late, the surgery began on time.  Everything went well; he was finished in an hour.  I then had to wait three more hours as Adam was recovering in post-op and coming out of the anesthesia.  During my time in the surgery waiting room, I received a deluge of phone calls and text messages from friends wishing us well, telling me they were praying for us, and wanting to help out.

It was overwhelming.

Meanwhile, I had called our home teacher, obviously rousing him from his bed, and he went to change the tire on the car.  Later in the day, the car mysteriously showed up in our driveway.  That was the work of our faithful home teacher again, along with his good wife (our Relief Society President).

I finally saw Adam about 1:15 PM in his room.  To be totally honest, he barely looked like himself.  His whole face was packed in ice and was swollen almost beyond recognition.  He was on oxygen and had a vaporizer blowing in his face.  He hadn't been cleaned up well after the surgery.  Blood was dried all over his face.  His lips were swollen so much that he couldn't even get his mouth around a straw.

It was tough to see my husband, my rock, like that.

When I entered the room, his eyes fluttered open and he reached out his hand for me.  I spent the next hour with him, talking to him, trying to get him to wake up from the anesthesia, and giving him water with a syringe.  By the time I left, he was mostly coherent.

I went to get my boys from Heather who had had them for nearly nine hours.  Got that?  NINE HOURS.  And when I arrived at her home, McKay was asleep, so she urged me to leave him there.  She had my baby for ten hours total today.  I have never left my kids with anyone other than my mom for that long of a time before.  It's overwhelming, really, that someone would be willing to do that for me.  Did I mention that this is the same friend who, shortly after moving into the ward, came to my home with a massive pizza for my family after I strained my back and could barely get up off the couch?  I hardly even knew her (but she has since grown to be one of my closest friends).  I am awed at such a life of Christlike, selfless service.

I spent some time with my sweet babies, and after receiving several more offers to help, I put them to bed and left them with my sweet neighbor, Gayle, while I went back to the hospital.  And, as another note, Gayle also lent me her VitaMix blender (the kind they use at Jamba Juice) and recipe book to make food for Adam when he comes home.  He will be on a liquid diet for the next three weeks.  And she's not the only one to offer an extra blender, either!

I have two different friends who are going to take my boys tomorrow so I can bring Adam home.  How many people offered to watch them?  Eight, if I remember correctly.  I am not exaggerating in the least.

I can't describe enough, how truly, truly grateful I am today.  I have been fighting back tears (mostly unsuccessfully) as each phone call, each offer to watch my kids, bring over food, pick up my car, etc. has poured in.  I am so humbled to know that I can't do this alone, and that there are so many around me so eager to help.  Thank you, thank you, to all of you who have given me the boost I so needed today.  I feel that each of you has been a sincere answer to prayer.

I am oh, so grateful for my mortal experience, and for days like these when I get to glimpse the divinity within those around me.

My heart is full.

My cup runneth over.

Let it Snow

Remember how I mentioned that we left Utah early because of a snowstorm that was coming?  It pounded us here in Colorado on Wednesday and Thursday.  My kids were thrilled; me, not so much.  I guess I shouldn't complain seeing how much of our December days were in the 50's and 60's.  But snow and I just don't get along.

On Friday morning, Ty told Adam that they had better get out and shovel the driveway.  He was so excited (Ty that is, not Adam)!

McKay was so heartbroken watching from the front window that I finally gave in and let him go play, too.

He loved it for the first few minutes, but then he took off across the yard, fell, and couldn't seem to get himself back to the driveway.  He whined, "Stuck, Mommy," until I came and got him.  He was pretty much done after that.

Ty, on the other hand, was euphoric in the 3 degree weather.  Is this really my kid?  If I didn't know better I might question it!