A tale of two stitches

I'm finally getting around to actually writing down one of our most recent adventures with Pman. It's still a little painful. For me. Patrick is fine.

Let me start by saying P had already had a rough week. On Wednesday he met the brick around Oma and Opa's fireplace with his face and was left with a big scrape over his eye. On Saturday (while playing with mama) he smacked his face on the coffee table and got a big fat lip. He was just warming up...

It was a warm Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago. Tim and I had planned to go wine tasting in Amador with my uncle and aunt that were in town visiting along with my dad. My mom had eagerly volunteered to stay home with the kiddos (mom's not much of a drinker :).

We got to my parents new house early and we were hanging out while everyone was finishing getting ready. Patrick was running around like a crazy man as usual. Looking back, I feel terrible that I didn't respond quicker to the THUD I heard come from the living room. He falls and bangs himself up so often that if I jumped to respond to every bump I'd spend all day hovering. It wasn't until I heard Tim shout "Oh sh**" for everyone to hear that I knew there was trouble.

Sure enough, he brings P into the kitchen with blood spreading down his face and of course, the poor kid is screaming bloody murder. I take a lot of pride in the fact that neither Tim or I are panicky parents. I know my heart was pounding and Tim was talking pretty fast, but for the most part we held it together and talked about what we needed to do. (It seriously drives me bonkers when parents wig out and get hysterical. You're not helping the situation or your child.) It was pretty obvious from the amount of blood and the way the cut looked that a band aid wasn't going to cut it. Bye-bye wine tasting.

The next question is, where the heck do we go??? It's Sunday so his doctor's office is closed. Do we head to the ER, urgent care? I didn't know. Fortunately Jan Cronin is always the level headed medical professional and she was able to advise us that urgent care would be able to handle our situation. That seemed much less scary than going to the hospital. So we threw a band aid over the gaping slash on my 21 month old’s head and headed out the door. Patrick had calmed down but he didn't want anyone to touch his head or even hold the cold pack to it. I knew getting it checked out was going to be loads of fun...

In the waiting room you never would have guessed that this child has recently had a traumatic head injury. He was running all over place, checking out the fish tank and charming the other patients. I considered just taking him home without further traumatizing him. Chics dig scars right? I kid, I would never deny my child medical care just because it might be uncomfortable for either of us.

It was a different story once we got into the exam room. I'll spare you all the details but let me just tell you that my arms were sore the next day from restraining him. Talk about heart breaking... It was a long process of having the nurse look at his cut and clean it up. Then the dr determined that he did in fact need stitches (duh). Then there was the agonizing 10 minute wait for the topical cream to numb the area. Patrick was enjoying a popsicle but I knew what was coming next wasn't gonna be pretty.

It was bad. That's all there is to say about it. Anyone who has had to go through any medical procedure with a small child knows that there are few things worse than listening to your child scream in fear. He wasn't in pain. That seemed pretty clear. But imagine being restrained by the people who love you most,having your eyes covered by a sheet, bright light blasted into your face while a stranger starts poking around your owie. It makes me sick just to think about how he felt.  I surprised myself by actually watching some of the procedure. I'm usually pretty squimish when it comes to things like this.  It's different when it's your child that someone is going at with a needle and thread.  You want to supervise everything and medical procedures are no different.  Fortunately, it was over pretty quickly and we headed home for a much deserved nap and lots of treats for the rest of the day.  Tofutti's not gonna cut it after a day including stitches to the head. Bring on the Ben and Jerry's.

Accidents happen. I consider myself extremely blessed to have been given a healthy, energetic child. With that blessing comes the risk that his curiosity will induce many boo-boos for Patrick and many grey hairs mommy. While I don't wish for days like this one, I wouldn't trade my rambunctious little boy for anything!

Playing catch up!

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm famous for ignoring my friends because I don't have 'enough' time to talk to them.  What I mean is, I always want to talk to my friends but often when I go to call someone I'll realize I only have 5-10 minutes before I have to go somewhere, do something etc.  Therefore, instead of calling them I wait until I have more time.  (Seriously, when am I gonna have more time?) This will continue for weeks or even months until I know that in order to catch up with this friend I'm gonna need a solid 2 hour block of time so we can fill eachother in because its been so long since we talked. I always kick myself for being such a crappy friend.

Apparently  I'm a crappy blogger too because I've done the same thing here.  Every time I want to post something short and sweet I stop myself because I didn't post about this thing or that subject before.  Argh! So here is my big catch up post. I'm gonna try to be better...I make no promises though :)

Me....After graduating in December I spent four LONG months looking for work.  It was beyond stressful and not at all what I consider to be a good time.  Making decisions that seem to effect your entire future is not my strong suit.  I finally did land a gig in the accounting department of a NoCal grocery store chain.  While it's not my dream job, it's not too difficult and I'm gaining experience that will benefit my career in the long run. I hope.

Going back to work after such a long time was tough to say the least. After about a week, I was ready to throw in the towel and stay home with my sweet little boy forever.  It was never my intention to be a stay at home mom long term (major props to you moms who do it) but I was overwhelmed by how much I missed him.  Plus, missing out on his entire day so that I could sit in a cube and stare at a spreadsheet all day didn't feel as worthwhile as I would have hoped. (shocking I know)  More on my plan for resolving this issue later.

Thank goodness for a loving spouse who supports me in everything I do.  Sometimes it drives me crazy because he won't just decide for me what I should do but I'm so thankful to know that whatever I decide regarding my career and our future he trusts me and will stand by me.  For better or worse...

As for Pman...There really is too much to say about this guy's growth in the last few months.  He's a PERSON.  To say he's not a baby anymore doesn't begin to cover how different he is now compared to 6 months ago. He talks in sentences. He says his ABC's (not just sings the song but actually knows what comes after L, S etc). He is beyond opinionated, but mostly in a good way.  Gone are the days when you could just grab a book off the shelf at night and snuggle in for a story. No. He wants to choose the book. And he's not sure which one he wants so you must offer about 300 different choices before he'll agree to one. While it's kind of a pain, it's also really cute to see him get excited about something that he really wants. One of the best changes we've had in the last couple months is that he EATS! We don't really know what changed but now instead of a a little bird I have a little piggy.  He's still pretty picky but dinner time is no longer the most dreaded part of our day.

I definitely gave birth to a creature that is part monkey.  He can now easily climb in and out of his crib so he pretty much comes and goes as he pleases. We learned this weekend that he can also turn doorknobs so keeping him in his room is a thing of the past.  Our days are spent just trying to keep this child alive and with no bones broken before the age of 2.  In case you didn't hear, we've already gotten to experience stitches. That's a different blog for a different day...

After evaluating MANY options for daycare when I went back to work, we found an awesome home daycare that we are thrilled with.  Patrick seems to have a great time.  He doesn't cry when he's dropped off and the provider really seems to love him. I think he is secretly one of her favorites. Who could blame her? He comes home singing songs I haven't heard and saying things that I know he didn't know how to say yesterday.  It's really fun to see him learning from other influences. As long as those are positive influences of course.

That's about all I can fit in during my lunch hour.  I really am going to try to get back to a couple posts a week.  It's so hard when you're away for such a long time.  Too many things to say. Not enough time :)