Brian woke up at 4:30, totally awake and ready to start the day. Which, ugh. This pretty much guarantees that 1) he will not be spending the night at Babba’s anytime soon and 2) I will crash after I drop him off at school. Kevin is home today, sick, so maybe he and I can have a nap date. Being near each other, in sleep, is just as good as being awake and actually talking to each other, yes?
Category: Brian
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A Get Well Video From Across The Pond
My friend Diarmuid, who works in AOL’s Dublin office was telling his four year-old daughter about Brian’s arm the other day, and she wanted to make him a get well video. Diarmuid finally put it up on Bebo, so now I can show it to you. His daughter may be the cutest thing ever:
Watch More Videos Uploaded by www.bebo.com/DiarmuidG4\
Thanks, Juliette! Brian loved the video, and he’s going to make one for you as soon as he’s feeling better (and we can put a shirt on him over his cast)! -
Broken Brian Update
As Jen said the other day, Brian broke his arm on Friday. Monday morning was spent calling orthopedists to see if any of them could see him. One of them said they didn’t want to see him for seven to ten days, and that someone “would call us back before the end of the day to set up an appointment.” That seemed kind of silly to me, especially if the kid just needed a hard cast. So, I called our pediatrician’s office to make sure I wasn’t overreacting. The very pleasant nurse I talked to said that sounded a little weird and gave me a couple other local orthopedists to try. First call, I got an appointment for Brian yesterday morning. We saw her yesterday, and Brian’s going in in a couple hours to have the bone set.\
Well, hopefully have the bone set. He has a non-displaced fracture of his elbow (the humerus, right at the end). It’s at an angle, and the doctor is going to try to just push it back in place. If that doesn’t work, she’s going to have to pin it. We’re hoping for option number one. Because he’s three and setting bones hurts like hell, they’re going to put him to sleep to do it. That way, if they have to pin the bone, he’ll already be under.\
Brian’s been great through this whole thing. He gets grumpy because he hates being stuck on the couch, but he was an absolute champ at the doctor’s, and has been pretty cheerful throughout considering this is his first real experience with being hurt. Last night, he was giddy and playful and even got up for a little while to play soccer with Jen. He’s on codeine and a little wobbly, so I had to hold him up so he didn’t topple over, but we still had fun.\
This is my first experience with a broken kid. I’ve been on the patient side of the equation several times (ask my mom… we got to know pretty much every emergency room in NATO). I’m pretty good at being the patient. I know my job (say “ouch a lot”, let people help you, say thank you and try not to be too big a baby). I don’t know how to be on the parent side of the broken kid equation. It’s new, and frustrating. Thankfully, this is our first real injury for either boy, which is amazing when you consider that half of their genetic makeup comes from one of the least graceful, most accident-prone people ever to stumble into the world. Jen, on the other hand, is awesome. She’s doing a great job with him and I’m in awe (hence my saying she’s awesome). She’s extremely patient and hasn’t even thrown anything through the wall in a fit of Spongebob-induced mania.\
I don’t know how good the cell reception will be at the surgery center, but I’ll most likely update twitter as soon as we know anything.\
Late Update: Sorry, I should have posted this sooner, but we’re all tired. Brian was a super kid at the surgery center. He didn’t cry, did everything the nurses asked him to, and came through with flying colors (OK, he cried coming out of anesthesia, but that’s perfectly normal), and he didn’t need surgery! His awesome orthopedist was able to set the bone by hand without pins and casted him. He was in and out of the operating room in about twenty minutes. He slept most of the afternoon and then ordered me around for the rest of it (“I want to watch Spongebob.” “Play Burnout.” “I want more juice.” “Come sit with me.”). We’re all going to try to sleep in our own beds tonight, even! This is pretty much the best case scenario for what could have happened today.\
And one more thing – I just want to say thank you to everyone who reached out with words of comfort, advice and sympathy. It was overwhelming and much appreciated. Thank you! -
B’s first day
Yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life. And it was fabulous.\
Brian had a great time at his new school. He was a bit sad when Kevin dropped him off but Kev gave Brian a big hug and then he ran off to play legos. Other awesome highlights: he used the toilet the whole day there (keeping his pull-up dry), ate his lunch no problem, and took a nap during quiet time. YAY! I was worried about lunch because he’s so picky and nap time because he’s not used to napping anymore. They have 4 recess/gym times, so I am sure the kids really do need the nap. The school has a web camera that parents can access to see their kids whenever they want. I love this feature. As soon as I get my access, I’ll be sure to send it along to the grandparents too. (I can sign up 5 other family members so they can check in on Brian too.) -
Today. Is the first day. Of the rest of my life.
Brian started full time preschool/daycare today. Wheeee. Boooo. I’m a wreck.
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OMG I hate school!!
After only one day in big boy preschool, Brian woke up vomiting in the middle of the night and it continued through the afternoon. Ugh. Stupid germy kids. Kevin was a super trooper and cleaned up the bedding while I cleaned up Brian and aimed him at the toilet.\
While rocking Brian last night, I was stuck watching middle-of-the-night tv since my tivo is empty and my dvd player broke. There is a show on the WE network called My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding, where people spend around a million dollars, give or take a few hundred thousand dollars. The one episode I watched was about a couple from New Jersey. It was like watching an episode of The Sopranos. The groom isn’t a mobster, but he is the boss of a successful company and his office also services three or four other guys, all of whom seemed to act as his lackeys, exactly like Paulie, etc from The Bada Bing. It was hysterical. -
OMG I love school!!
While Brian was in school today, I:
- Cleaned and mopped the tv room.
- Started dinner.
- Made some phone calls.
- Cleaned the mirror and toothpaste junk from the bathroom.
- Did the dishes.
- Cleaned most of the kitchen.
- Put away toys.
- Ate lunch.
- Blogged about our holiday vacation.
- Goofed off.\
YAYAYAYAYAY!!\
Brian’s first day of school went really well for him too. No peepee mess (which was my biggest worry). He didn’t pee at all in school, which is ok too. When I got there to pick him up, they were having music time and he was dancing and doing all of the motions to the song. It was cute. He is a head taller than the other kids, which is really funny to see.\
This month Brian has preschool everyday because I am keeping him enrolled in his old school, which meets T, W, Th, and added his new school, which meets M, W, F. (We’ll skip old school’s Wednesday classes). Since it is winter, which means no playground time with mommy, this seemed like a good idea. In February and on, I was going to just have him go to the new school. I have to admit though that after only one day of getting a heckuva lot done, I am tempted to keep him in both programs. Mwuhahaha.
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Ack!
I just dropped Brian off at big boy preschool. Cries.
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Woot-ish.
The past couple of days, Brian has been sleeping in until 5:30, give or take a few minutes. It’s so awesome, I love it. This is happening just in time for us to go to Mississippi where he can once again wake up at 4:30. (Cries.)
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Snow!
The kids and I spent almost two hours outside playing in the snow after Max came home from school. Building a snowman is surprisingly difficult. Then we came inside for hot chocolate and feety pajamas. YAY!*\
*This is totally the sanitized version. The real version is that Max clomped around the house yelling for me after getting home. He woke both Brian and me up from a lovely nap. I scurried to get Max into his snow clothes. Brian flopped around crying because he was upset at being disturbed. Then he cried about wanting to go outside to play with Max. While I gathered Brian’s snow clothes and dressed him, he continued to cry. Lovely. I couldn’t get Brian’s snow gloves on properly, so we settled for a knit pair. Then I dressed myself. Off we went! I couldn’t find the camera, so no pictures. There were lots of other kids outside already. Max and the older kids snowboarded a little. Brian apparently sweet talked an older girl into sledding with him. They went up and down over a million times and Brian didn’t have to do any of the hard work! It was really cute to see. I plopped down and was instructed by Daisy, the cute neighbor girl, to build the head of a snowman. But! But I kept crushing the head. After awhile, Daisy’s mom came out and we chatted. OMG adult time! Best part of my day. Brian soldiered on with only his knit gloves for quite awhile, but eventually his little frozen fingers became too painful. I shoved the snow gloves on and we both pretended they fit ok. The kids played for awhile more. When I finally told them to go inside, they pouted. I sent them in first so that I could shovel our sidewalk. When I got inside, the kids were complaining about being stuck in their snow clothes. Brian started to scream and wanted all of his clothes off. Neither kid wanted their new pajamas on. When I dared to pause taking care of them to get my own snow clothes off, they demanded hot chocolate. After taking a drink, Brian immediately dissed it and wanted “real chocolate milk” instead. While stirring and whipping the hot chocolate, both kids started begging for dinner. Forty-five minutes later everybody is finally quiet and content.