"I need you to come home, right now."

With those words, I knew that my brief workday was over. I had come in on a Sunday to catch up, and I had barely logged into my computer when Mandy called. She mentioned something about a stranger giving her a ride home with the kids, and Noah bleeding all over. I could hear someone in the background wailing. I didn't even bother to ask what happened.

When I got home, I found Noah on the couch he likes to lay on when he gets hurt, holding a bloody mop of wet paper towels to his hand. As soon as I saw him, he broke into sobs and said "I got a boo-boo daddy." I scooped him up, and we headed to Children's Mercy. On the way, Mandy told me the story - they had taken the stroller to the toy store in Brookside to buy a present for a friend's birthday party that afternoon. Noah was excited to go into the store, and followed someone else in as they opened the door.

Unfortunately, he put his left hand on the hinge-side of the door as it was closing, and it shut completely on his pinky finger, breaking the tip and almost severing his finger. Mandy was still unbuckling E from the stroller, and heard the screaming and had to rush to open the door to free his hand.

From there it was chaos, as people scrambled to help. At that point, Mandy couldn't tell exactly what the damage was, only that it was bad.

Noah, who is no fan of his own blood (which he has seen plenty of), was trying so hard to be brave while we waited to be seen. Once in the triage exam room, the nurse was able to replace the bloody paper towels he had in a death grip with a temporary bandage, and he seemed to calm down a little.



Trying to be brave, but still nervous.

Pretty soon the doctor wanted a look. I was trying to shield his eyes from the wound as they unwrapped the bandages.
They brought in a Child Life Specialist to help Noah get comfortable before (and during his surgery). This was one of the things he remembered pretty specifically today - "The doctor let me play trains". One of the reasons I really like Children's Mercy is their attention to this area of children's health care.

Noah was x-rayed, and given Versed to relax him before shooting his finger full of Lidocaine for the procedure. He cried as they gave him the medicine (they deliver a huge syringe of the stuff through his nostrils), but afterwards this was the funniest part - watching him get high. He was trying to blow the bubbles that the Child Life Specialist was blowing at him - clearly relaxing fast.


Time to get to work. This was the worst part, watching him cry as they shot him full of Lidocaine. He was wrapped up like a mummy, with one nurse holding his free arm down.

The CLS tried to keep him distracted with a story, while Mom rubbed his head.

This picture speaks for itself. Ouch.


They turned the overhead lights off and pretty soon the stress and the Versed caught up with him, and he went to sleep with Mandy rubbing his head.

The surgery involved 11 stitches to reattach his finger and to do a "nail-bed repair", where they remove the nail, fix the finger, and then attempt to reattach the nail by jamming it down into the cuticle and stitching it to the finger in hopes that a new one will grow. It may or may not. The finger, because it is also broken, is encased in a splint that he will need to wear for at least a couple of weeks.

They told us he would sleep for at least a couple of hours while the drugs wore off, and then go to bed at his normal bedtime. Being the champion sleeper he typically is, he woke up before I had carried him halfway down the hallway, and was up until 9:00 that night.

He hadn't eaten lunch when this all happened (12:15), and by the time we stopped in to fill his prescriptions it was after 5:00. So he got ice cream and Cheez-its for an early dinner. I think we'd been promising him ice cream for at least four of those hours if he was brave - don't judge, you know you would have too. Turns out he not only has Mandy's sweet tooth, but also her penchant for mixing sweet-and-salt foods. Dipping the chocolate chip-cookie dough ice cream with Cheez-its may sound nasty, but apparently it's not bad...

The scene of the crime: I didn't take him here on purpose, it was just between the ice cream shop and the drug store. The left side of the door, about head-high, is where he caught his hand. That'll teach him to run into a store before Mom is ready, right? Right?

We were worried about him waking up during the night due to the pain, but he slept all night and woke up like nothing happened. We haven't given him any Motrin since before bed last night. He says it doesn't hurt anymore and is back to his usual self. He's pretty proud of his "cool cast" and his bracelet (hospital i.d.) that he isn't removing. He can't wait to show Hudson today when he gets home from school.

3rd toofer

Elliot's top right tooth finally popped through sometime this evening. I am hoping this means he'll sleep all night! I gave him some motrin and put some orajel on just before bed and low and behold, I felt it. I had checked not 3 hrs before and it still wasn't there. I hope this means we all sleep good tonight. Of course, the left upper center gum is also swollen and that tooth is coming in right behind it, so I doubt it. :) Look at him so prim and proper with his hands held together. Doesn't he look like he's posing for me? And don't you find it hard to believe this little angel causes me any trouble at all?

"Probably looks great"

Today I brought home some pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing to bring with dinner to a friend who just had a baby. Noah spotted them on the counter and said "what's that mom?". I knew we couldn't eat them, so I was regretting leaving them out in plain view. I told him "Oh, just a little dessert". He said "Mom, is that cake?". I told him "No, it's pumpkin bars. Does it look pretty good?" He was so serious in his tone and said "Probably looks great!" It was so funny! I love his use of the word probably when it's not necessary and I also love the way he says it "Probly". I dropped off dinner at 3:30 today so he wouldn't have to resist the temptation all day long.

Keep trying

This won't mean much to non-parents that don't watch Noggin, in particular the annoying Yo Gabba Gabba. But, as annoying as it is, it's songs teach good lessons. When Noah gets frustrated building blocks or something we sing the "Keep trying. Keep Trying. Don't give up. NEver give up. Keep trying. Keep trying. You'll get it right. You'll get it right". Yes, I know brilliant lyrics. Anyway, it actually helps him keep trying and not get frustrated, believe it or not.

Today he wanted to watch a TV show and somehow the TV is messed up. I told him "I'm trying Noah, but it's broken and I can't figure it out, so we can't watch a show" then he broke out into song....

"Keep trying! Keep trying! Don't give up. Never give up. Keep trying. Keep trying. Don't get it right. Don't get it right" It made me laugh and I felt like I had to keep trying. Never did get it right though.

It's cute, right?

Elliot all snug as a bug in a rug sleeping in the stroller (in his brother's size 4T hoodie that Paul put on him) and blankies. Precious, huh? You know what would be even cuter? Him sleeping....... in his CRIB! Yes, that little guy has been consistently waking up around 5:30 for the past month. So Paul will take him and I go back to bed for awhile. But, usually Paul is working out until 6am, so sometimes I'm up for awhile with him before going back to sleep. It wouldn't be so bad if he slept through the night, but those days are over too. On good nights he wakes once at 1-ish to nurse. On bad nights it's more. This all coincidentally started when he got his first 2 teeth. The 3rd is coming in now. That doesn't offer much comfort, since he won't have all his teeth until he's TWO! Ok, enough of my pity party.

He slept from 6:30-7:30am in his stroller today after Paul took him on a walk. At least he's really, really cute.

Lookie what E did today :)

Today, he pulled himself up in his crib for the first time. And Paul doesn't have to lower the crib mattress. I was smart enough with Elliot to just leave it on the lowest setting from day one. You are welcome, Paul :)

Also, I haven't posted about him learning to crawl on his hands & knees yet, but he took his first "steps" on them Sunday (his 8 month birthday). He only takes 3-4 at a time before reverting to his belly crawl. But, he's doing more and more each day.

Every single week at his Occupational Therapy she just checks off more and more milestones he is meeting. He is doing a lot of things you don't think of as "milestones" unless your kid is in therapy too. Things like using one hand to grab things, purposefully dropping things, fingering toys more than mouthing them, gesturing to communicate, etc. He's moving right along and is one busy boy!

Noah is 3!

Noah turned 3 on Friday. He had a good day. We did give him our present that morning (a cool boat that does a lot of stuff, none of which are loud and annoying). We just had a typical day playing and hanging out. Went to playgroup, Hudson & Addison came by to bring him presents (they didn't want to give them at the party because that wasn't his actual birthday), and have ice cream with him, and that night I took him on a bike ride, just the two of us, since we rarely have time alone.

His party was on Saturday and we had a lot of fun. It was a smaller version of what we did last year. We had the big Spiderman bouncehouse again, but instead of inviting our entire playgroup, we kept it to family and his 3 best friends. A great time was had by all. Unfortunately, we were so busy that weren't on our game when it came to the photography.

I love that smile - it just lights up his whole face.

We got the actual blowing out of the candles on video, but not film. So Paul asked me to re-light candles and have him blow them out again. Noah was in a hurry to devour this (second) cupcake so I grabbed what was nearby. That is why the candles are mismatched. I had several nearby because Hudson, Addison and Charlie all insisted they too wanted candles to blow out in their cupcakes.

3 cuties in a hurry to get back to bouncing.

Noah coming off the fun slide
Hudson

Cousin Dylan
Addison

Cousin Charlie

Jack

Elliot's eye cyst is gone!

I forgot to mention on here that we noticed over a week ago that Elliot's eye cyst is completely gone. There is no redness and no bump. Even though it was only cosmetic, I am so thrilled it is gone!

"Splash, splash, splash!"

As Elliot is learning to crawl, one of his favorite destinations (as I found out by hearing the above sounds) is the dog dish. He's fast, too. I put him down for a second, and off he goes. A few seconds later I hear him happily splashing all the water out and getting soaked. He's even turned the bowl over and gotten completely wet.

Normally I wouldn't take the time to snap pictures before getting him out of it, but it was too late by the time I took these anyway.

Sunday Morning Ride

The last couple of weekends, Mandy has been riding her bike to Loose Park to do her Sunday morning workouts. Noah was still asleep when she left, but it was a nice cool fall-like morning and I decided to ride up there with the kids to join her after he woke up.

The park is two miles to the playground from our house, and the route has some significant hills - especially for a 3-year old who hasn't had breakfast yet (I offered, he declined). I figured Noah would tire out at some point along the way, but we'd probably meet Mandy on her way back and we could haul Noah back on her bike.

But I underestimated Noah's desire to a) see Mom and b) play in the park. He had no trouble keeping up, although on some of the bigger hills he wanted to stop and get a drink of water to help him up the hill. These pictures are kind of blurry because not only was I using a cell phone camera, but I was trying to take pictures while keeping up with him on the steep downhills, which he absolutely loved.

He loved going fast, but I couldn't get him to keep his eyes on the road. He kept looking around, and down at the road going oh-so-fast past him.

Look up, boy!

And straight ahead...

We finally made it to the park, but no sign of Mom...

Elliot decided to take a nap. That can't be comfortable. I probably should have tightened the straps a little more.

Still snoozing. Note my fancy sippy-cup water bottle...

Mandy joins us - E is still passed out.

I'm awake now!

And having fun on the swings!

After we finished playing, we locked up Noah's bike, put him on the back of Mandy's bike and rode the Trolley Trail back to Brookside for muffins and fruit for breakfast. I love mornings like this when we're out having fun/exercising and having family time.

Last weekend Mandy jogged up to Loose Park with Noah in the jogging stroller, still in his pajamas. He rarely likes to ride, but he was still pretty tired when he woke up, and enjoyed it. The fog made for some surreal, but beautiful pictures. I wish I had more than a cell phone camera with me.

The lost art of correspondence

Noah has recently gotten into writing letters and he really loves getting letters. It actually started between him and his best friend Hudson. Hudson is the one who started sending letters to Noah. Soon Noah was sending them to Hudson. They used to hand deliver letters daily in eachothers mailboxes. Now they do it frequently, but not every single day. Last week Noah was writing a letter to Hudson and he decided he wanted to write his Dad a letter and mail it to work.

Paul sent us this picture from his phone the next day. As you can see, Noah likes to bedazzle his letters with lots of stickers.

Noah was really excited to get a letter from Paul the next day! Paul typed out a letter and even printed a picture of him and Noah on it. Paul did his own bedazzling with a highlighter and a couple of sharpies. :)