Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Random Blog-by

SO much to say, SO little time. I'll hit a few of them, save the bigger ones . . .

My kids are on spring break which means at any given moment I have 4 - 8 kids roaming my house. It has been going good. Today the MomBFF and I are attempting to take everyone to a movie. I'll let you know how that goes!

My youngest has an eye doctor appointment. Lately I have been noticing his left eye turns in at times. I thought for sure it was a lazy eye until the family doctor said sometimes kids who are near sighted will go cross-eyed in an attempt to focus. Does anyone know how they test eye sight in kids that young? He is almost twenty months old. I am sure I will find out soon enough.

We rented a dumpster for spring cleaning. It is entirely full and I still have one more room to go through - my craft room. It feels nice not to be a pack rat anymore! It was the best $120 bucks I ever spent!

-Sara

Friday, April 4, 2008

Tips on Broken Fingers

It is a bit scary when your 8 year old daughter has had a broken arm, stitches in her knee, and most recently, a broken pinkie finger, and still isn't the record holder for ER/Urgent care visits in the family.

My 6 year old son is the winner in that category with staples to the head, stitches to the head, a massive sliver, and a crushed hand in a minivan sliding door.

These kids . . .

My oldest two were picking up the family room and as they got close to finishing, some horsing around began. While running across the room, she tripped over her own feet and landed on her hand. Her fingers were bent way back when she fell.

I knew by her cry she was really hurt, but she was able to move each finger, nothing was swollen and all her knuckles seemed to be in place. I sent her to sit down on the couch with some ice and reminded her, "This is why moms tell kids not to run in the house!" Two hours later, and as dinner was nearly ready, she was still sniffling. I asked to see her hand again and this time her pinkie was getting fat. She refused to bend her fingers so I told her to get in the car.

I didn't really think it was broken, but I had flashback of my sister's broken arm. It was four days before they took her to see a doctor. My poor mom, "But it never swelled up!" My sister is still bitter . . . okay not really, but it is a great one to bring up when you want to jab a tad at Mom.

We get there and sure enough - hairline fracture of the middle joint in her right hand pinkie. It was splinted, taped, wrapped to the other two fingers diagnosed as severely strained, and sent home. I was even given a "good job mom" compliment from the doctor who showed my daughter her crooked finger and told her, "My mom wasn't as nice as yours. She didn't bring me to a doctor." I am thankful my inner mom voice spoke up or I might not have.

Broken Finger Advice -

1 - Buy extra tape and sticky wrap stuff. The nurse told me we could reuse the wrap until it gets "nasty," but honestly, if your child was active enough to break their finger, they are probably active enough to need a new wrap almost everyday.

2 - If the broken digit is on their dominate hand, unwrap it at dinner time. If the fracture is near a growth plate and you are told to "be cautious" and keep it splinted, having it wrapped becomes a false sense of security for a young child. With the hand still taped to the split, but the wrap taken off, it forced my daughter to eat left handed instead of struggling with her wrapped hand and risking further injury.

3 - Remember to take both motrin and tylenol to the school nurse. I sent motrin to be taken at 11:00 AM, but by the time 3:30 PM rolled around she was in pain and couldn't have more. If I had brought tylenol, she could have had some of it later in the day.

4 - If your child tends to get warm at night, turn on a fan. I checked on her hand before I went to bed. She had yanked off the wrap in her sleep.

5 - Send them to school in elastic waist band pants. It will save them some embarrassment when using the restroom.

and finally - Don't laugh Mom! It's NOT funny!

-Sara

Thursday, April 3, 2008

PMS or Overreaction?

Blog has been neglected long enough. Life tends to get busy this time of year, but sheesh!

We have had a death in the extended family, a broken finger, the jeep died, the van finally came back after a month in the shop and has to go right back in for more work, not to mention our attempts at spring cleaning. We got a dumpster and everything!

Life has been crazy and it is time to vent it out.

Ryan and I had our first public fight. It has been four years; I guess we were due.

We were at the funeral for his step-grandma who lost her battle with cancer. It was a very hard on Ryan's family, but since she was someone my kids had only met a handful of times, I didn't pull the older two out of school for the funeral. In hindsight, it was probably not the best decision, but one we made as a couple.

At the luncheon after the funeral, Ryan came up to me and told me I was wanted for a family picture. He made the comment, "Now that we are officially married you are expected to be in it." He was kidding, but immediately I went into mama bear mode and told him I was going to sit this one out.

He calmly explained it was his great-aunt who wanted the pictures and it would be no big deal, but I just smiled and said, "Since half my family isn't here, I will not be in the picture. I don't mind if you and the babies join."

I am ultra sensitive to my blended family. There is a divide in kids, but I want to acknowledge it as little as possible. An extended family picture that is possibly going to end up on the mantle at Grandma's house is not something I want my older kids to see and wonder why they aren't in the extended-family photo.

He tried to make it better and say it wasn't a real family picture. The woman simply wanted photos of the family members at the luncheon. I snapped back, "That is easily fixed. I can leave."

Ryan got a big snippy with me and said, "It is no big deal, just get in the picture."

Here is where I started to get back in his face. You can't have it both ways. Either it really is no big deal - in which case no one will mind if I sit out - OR it IS a big deal - in which case I am definitely not getting in the picture without my other two kids. I asked him, "Which is it?"

He started to walk off . . . INFURIATING . . . I yelled after him and made him talk to me. In the end, he promised the only one with a copy would be a woman in another state and "please just get in the photo, play nice this once."

I was really upset for a few days. It wasn't about the photo anymore. He wasn't sticking up for me. Most of the time he is WONDERFUL at having my back on my idiosyncrasies, but this time I felt thrown under the bus. When I was calm enough to hear his side, I began to understand. He was already on the $h1t list with his mother for other silly issues. He had said we would be in the photo before he asked me and didn't want to make a scene after agreeing. Ryan promises it won't happen again.

I need some opinions. Was this a serious case of PMS or was I justified in flipping out?

-SaraMae