Friday, May 30, 2008

My Little Boy's Boo-Boo Pt. 3 & Steve's Wedding & Picture Friday!

Well, you get a title that long and confusing when you wait this long to post! We had a very busy weekend last week with Steve's wedding, and then this week, we had our check up at the hand doc.

Our very good friend Steve married our new very good friend Stacy this weekend. It was just about the coolest wedding I have ever been to! Stacy is from Jeffersonville, IN which is right across the river from Louisville, KY. So they had their wedding at her church in Jeffersonville, and the reception right across the river at the Galt House. Most of the family stayed with us at the Galt House too. I must say it was one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in.

So first I had some help packing from Moose. Then I packed him up and sent him off to Mimi and Grandy's for the weekend.Cory and I took off on Friday right after lunch and made the hour and a half drive to Louisville. When we checked in to the hotel, I noticed the abundance of Baby Boomers that were covered head-to-toe in Beatles memorabilia. I honestly did not even know that they sold that stuff with Beatles faces all over it, but let me tell you: if they make something, they make a Beatles version of it. Turns out it was the Abbey Road Convention.

The front desk gave us a wonderful package from Steve and Stacy, thanking us for coming to their wedding weekend. Maker's and wine. A lovely way to get ready for our evening.
When they assigned our room, they offered us a higher up room that was handicapped. Cory was concerned we would be taking it away from someone who might need it, so we got the lower room. It was beautiful, but it overlooked the street.
If you leaned just right though, you could see the river:)
I proceeded to get ready for the rehearsal and Cory went out to investigate the hotel. When he got back, he had ran into Steve in the hall! Steve was remarkably calm considering his upcoming nuptials.

We met his family in the hall after we were ready, and we headed over across the river to the church. It was only about 10 minutes away, and pretty easy to find since I had printed out directions (of course!). Everyone promptly made fun of my printed out directions to everything, then they all checked them out so they could follow them!
Here are Cory and I with the bride and groom.
Cory, Steve, Russ (childhood friend), Rick (Stacy's brother), and his son Ryan (ring bearer)
After the rehearsal, which went really quick due to Stacy's wonderful planning, we headed over to the Spagetti Factory for the rehearsal dinner. It was WONDERFUL. I have never eaten there before and it was so good! We both had crab ravioli and Steve's parents graciously included drinks with our meal.
This is after a few drinks:)
We walked back to the hotel, which was only a few blocks away, with Russ and Steve. Stacy went back to her parents' house to stay the night there.
Before we went back to our rooms, we hit the hotel bar, so celebrate Steve's last few hours of bachelorhood. The bar was actually made of a large aquarium, it was super cool.
I tried to inconspicuously take some pics of it, and not look like a dork.
The boys.
We got up the next morning and had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Then we headed over to the church for the service! Stacy had asked me to stand with the bridesmaids and make sure the flower girl and ring bearer were in the right place at the right time.
Here is the church's baptismal, it was a beautiful fountain. Never seen anything like it.
The service was beautiful and shorter than what I had prepared myself for. It was a Catholic service with full mass. Steve and Stacy decided to wait until the ceremony until they saw each other, so after the service, they had the rest of their pictures taken.

After the pictures, we realized the shuttle service had forgotten about us. So the wedding party was almost 40 minutes later than when they were supposed to be there. It was very annoying for everyone.

We finally got back to the Galt House, and after meeting up with the photographer, headed towards the ballrooms. The hotel lobby was filled to the brim with Beatles fans, and a ton of kids for some reason. When we walked through the revolving doors, everyone turned around and started clapping and congratulating the happy couple. It was very cool.

They had reserved two huge ballrooms and they were filled with people. I was supposed to sit with two couples that worked with Steve and Cory, but they didn't show. Luckily, there were two of Stacy's old teachers also at the table and they were super nice to me. Cory was sitting at the head table with the rest of the wedding party.
Here is the groom's cake, it is a "four-wheelin'" cake. Steve likes jeeps and four-wheeling with off road vehicles.
The garter.
We had a wonderful time, closing the place down. We stumbled back to our room in exhaustion several hours later. Cory and I were supposed to attend a cookout the next day, sending the bride and groom off on their honeymoon to St. Lucia. Unfortunately we decided we missed Moose too much, and we wanted to head home. So we left earlier than we planned. But we had a blast.

Instead of being thrilled to see us, Moose was bit miffed that Mimi left him with us and didn't stay herself.
Luckily, it only last a few minutes before he melted into and exhausted heap on top of Cory. Mimi and Grandy are tiring.
On Wednesday, we had our third appointment with the doctor for Moose's finger. They unwrapped him, and informed us he was healing well. The tip is still black, with parts of it tinged with pink. The nail is gone, and it looks soft a smooth were it came off.

They sent us home with a small bandage, just around the hurt finger. We can take it off for baths, and replace it as needed.

Moose does not like to see it. We have taken it off each night this week for baths (Summer is everyday bathing due to his tendency to smell like a dirty foot) and he cries each time and tells me he doesn't want to see it.

He is still favoring the whole hand even though he can use it again. The skin on the rest of his hand that was not injured is very oddly textured at the moment. It almost looks a bit swollen, and is dry and flaky. I have been smothering it in Curel lotion, but I'm wondering if I should be putting something else on it. If it doesn't look better soon, I may call the doc back.
The new bandage.

When it starts to heal a bit more, I will post a picture of it for you guys. It might be a bit too scary to post as it is currently. We have another appointment for a check up with the hand doc in three weeks. We'll keep you updated!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Domestic Goddess Tip-Week #6

My family and I really enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables. We have lots of buying options, from the local farmers' markets, to a whole food store, to our regular grocery. Our regular grocery is the cheapest and most convenient, so we typically pick them up there.

The in season fruits and vegetables are typically on sale, and prominently displayed. This week, berries were on sale, so Moose and I picked up an array of choices.

My husband loves my pies, so since he was returning from a long trip today, we decided to make him a pie to welcome him home. There is nothing like a warm, sweet pie smell to meet you at the door when you've been out of town. Not that I would know from experience, since Cory has never baked me a pie in his life, but... you know, I can imagine:)

All of these berries are on sale, and fabulously in season, which translates into: run and buy them NOW while they are delicious and sweet and ripe!

Love Berry Pie
adapted from Woman's World recipe
1 pkg. pie crust mix or Pillsbury Pie Crust
2/3 C granulated sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 T chopped crystallized ginger (this is expensive but the taste is worth it, plus it lasts forever!)
2 t Velencia orange peel
1 t ground cinnamon
1 pkg. (1 lb.) strawberries, sliced
1 pkg. (6 oz.) raspberries
1 pkg. (1 pt.) blueberries
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place a cookie sheet on the center rack of the oven, to catch any drippings. Prepare the pie crust according to directions (I used Pillsbury Pie Crusts that are already prepared, you just unroll them) and fit into nine inch pie pan. Trim and flute edge. With remaining dough, cut out five half-inch strips to put across the top of the pie. To make it double cute, use a cookie cutter to cut out hearts, stars, or what-have-you to decorate the top.

In a bowl, combine granulated sugar, cornstarch, ginger, orange peel and cinnamon; stir in strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Pour into pie shell.

Arrange strips over filling. Trim the ends and fit to the pie shell. Lightly brush one side of each cut-out (I used stars this time) and press onto the top of the strips. It will work like glue. Then, lightly brush the top of all of the dough with the egg. Grab a pinch of sugar and sprinkle it over the top of the pie.

Place in the oven on the heated cookie sheet, and bake for one hour or until golden and bubbly. Be sure to cool completely before you slice and serve. Goes wonderfully with vanilla ice cream and a tall glass of milk.

This is a very easy recipe, even if you've never made a pie before. The Pillsbury Pie Crusts are available in the dairy aisle with the biscuits and they make the recipe absolute cake... or pie rather:)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Doc Mommy and the Pink Casts (that would totally make a good name for a rock band)

Turns out Tractor Supply is not a hot spot on Saturday night. I glanced over at Moose during dinner tonight, and saw this. His new soft cast is hanging on by threads, literally.
Doc N said that we could replace it over the next two weeks, she didn't say that I would have to. So picking up new bandage has been low on my list of priorities.

The bandage is actually not really a bandage. It is a special equine "vetrap". That's right, the stuff they wrap around their legs. It even has a lovely illustration of a horse on the package.

And it is only available at Tractor Supply.

The only local Tractor Supply I know of is in Nville, about twenty minutes away from our house. Not a huge deal, but simply annoying because we were "in" for the night as far as I was concerned.

We actually had a wonderful drive out, because the weather has decided to be a piece of Heaven today. The temperature was perfect, and dusk had just started to fall. My favorite time of year during Spring.

I was one of three cars in the Tractor Supply parking lot. We went in and there were two men working the front desk. I thought it best to ask were the horse stuff was, instead of looking for it. Both of the guys cooed over Moose and his finger boo-boo, and both felt the need to escort me to the equine aisle and give me their advice.

One of them said that we should get a manly color. Apparently we had an array of choices available. Moose picked out red, and yellow. Big surprise.

We got home, I sat Moose on the bathroom counter and I asked him which color he wanted first. Red.

I rolled out the bandage and realized my mistake. Not red. Pink.

Very pink actually, almost magenta.

The package clearly says red, and it totally looked red in the store. Dang it.

On a semi-related note, Moose asked me about my pink toes this afternoon. I told him Mommy painted her toenails pink. Then he asked me if I could paint his toenails too.

I told him no, only Mommies painted their toenails. Daddy needs to come home:)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

My Little Boy's Boo-Boo Pt. 2

Wednesday we had our second appointment with the hand specialist, Dr. N. She and her whole office were absolutely wonderful with Moose.

We arrived promptly on time and had to wait almost 20 minutes in the waiting room. Kind of annoying, but luckily I packed a nice bag of tricks. Including the new coloring book from Cici, and Dora book from Donna (thanks ladies!). So we were perfectly entertained.

Now Dr. N had told us they may put Moose under anesthesia to have the cast switched over, so we had readied for that by not eating anything for breakfast. We had no idea what the appointment would be.

They finally called us back, and the young little nurse sat Moose and I in a seat in front of a small table. She then proceeded to cut Moose's original cast off.
It took her almost 15 minutes to get the whole thing off. Moose sat like a perfect angel, watching her intently.

She even said that she wished all the little boys she took casts off of acted like him.
*beams with pride at my awesome mothering*

When she got to the last of it, the smell hit. Now that was some nasty, let me tell you. But you could also see the dried blood on his fingertips. She took off the final pieces, and I could see the fingernail ripping off.

This is when Moose started to get upset. I tried to cover his eyes up, but he didn't really like that either.

The nurse hopped out, promising the doctor would be there shortly. Cory sat in the floor beside us and read Moose at tractor book while we waited.

The doctor arrived and told us that his finger looked great. The piece they sewed on had "took" and you could see parts of it were black, but the main middle part was pink and fleshy looking. She said the his fingernail should grow back totally in about a year. Hmm.

She also said that she was replacing this cast with a new one that was smaller and easily replaceable on my part. It is just a wrap, really. More of his thumb is showing and he is able to bend his elbow again, due to the fact that the cast only goes to his top wrist.

We have an appointment in two weeks for another healing check, and she is planning on us leaving with only a band aid on the finger!
*beams with pride at awesome mothering again*

The new cast:Da whole thing:
My beacon in the night: thank Gawd they were not out of original glazed this time.
And after we filled our tummies with hot Krispy Kremes, Moose went in to daycare, I went back to work, and Cory headed up to Chicago!

So the last two weeks have not been nearly as bad as I thought they would be. The only task has been baths, and we just tied Mejier plastic bags around his arm, and put him in. It wasn't a big deal. He has been a total trooper, not complaining or trying to take the bandage off.

I feel an odd sense of incredible gratitude towards Dr. N that I am not sure how to express. I know she was only doing her 9-5 job, but it's weird, I feel like I should send her a basket of muffins or something. Not sure how to describe it.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Back in Black, the New GT




Well, Cory is thrilled of course. Aaron brought it to him today, and everything is taken care of I think. My old GT is gone, the guy picked it up a few days ago.
I have to learn how to drive a stick soon!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mother's Day '08

Well happy Mother's Day to myself, and all the wonderful mothers in my life! Specifically Mom, Mil and Cici!
I've already had a wonderful Mother's Day, and it's not even 10 AM yet. Cory let me sleep in, and Moose and him baked me orange cinnamon rolls. It was lovely, he even had coffee ready when they got me up.
They bought me an astoundingly beautiful diamond pendant. You know how I feel about taking pictures of my jewelry, so you'll have to wait until you see me to see it. But let me assure you, astounding. That's all I'll say.
Here is a picture of the very cool "flower" vase Moose made me at daycare. The "flowers" are made of tracings of his hands. It is so cute! And also the mysterious pendant's box. Don't worry, you'll see it when you see me next, it is never leaving my body.Last weekend, Cory installed a ceiling fan in our living room. He had to actually crawl around in our attic to install an electrical box, because there was nothing there to start with.


Finished! It has made a great difference in the air circulation, and temperature already.
Here is the gift I made for Baby Avery. It is something that I would have loved to have received when I was pregnant with Moose. It's all the extras and little things you don't really know you need, until you need them! The wrapped gift in the back is Lionel, the ceramic lion that the girls got me when I was in the hospital having Moose. They went to the gift shop and for some reason picked out the tackiest ceramic pastel colored lion that was available. I see no reason not to share the wealth with Jenn. Hopefully she'll continue my started tradition of giving it to the next expecting parent in our friend group.
Bath time! Obviously before the Finger Event.

Playing with Daddy.
I totally earned my fabulous Mother's Day gift yesterday. Don't let this angelic face fool you. He was Hell on Wheels yesterday. All day. I was almost in tears when Cory got home.

Here is some of the reason he was so bad. He refused to take a nap. I heard him in his room walking around and rustling things. Turns out he was reading every book in his room.
I didn't finish laundry yesterday like I had planned, but I did finish cleaning. I am hoping to do a whole bunch of nothing today.
I am having M&D over for dinner for Mother's Day tonight too. But I planned a pretty simple dinner of Bar-B-Q Chicken Pizza. I made a very cool cake yesterday from scratch. It smells delicious, so we'll see. Hopefully I will get back in the groove of posting pics on Friday or Saturday, and my Domestic Goddess Tips on Sunday, next weekend. I have a ton of recipes to share.

**Edited later to add: Okay, I cave. I refuse to put a picture of the necklace up for personal reasons, I don't want people to think I'm gloating and such. However, since a lot of you live far away, and won't see me for a bit, I will email a picture to you (Mil!). So if you want to be added to that email I send tomorrow evening, send me an email, or request it in your comment. Thanks for caring, guys.**

Saturday, May 10, 2008

My Favorite Type of Post...

...the bulleted kind. It seems the best way of handling updates I have to share. Plus it's the easiest!
  • Moose is doing great. You would never know anything was wrong with him. He has been happily playing all week at daycare, and according to them, it hasn't slowed him down a bit. Pieces of the cast are starting to rub off, leaving it frayed. We have an appointment on the 14th for him to have his cast replaced. Doctor N mentioned they would probably put him to sleep to replace the cast, because he is so little he might fight them putting it back on. We're not sure about that yet. Luckily the appointment is at 9, so we won't have to keep him hungry for too long.
  • Pee-pee in the potty has been progressing. He is clearly doing it for the M&Ms rewards we give him, we've diminished the rewards down to one M&M now. I tried to put him in a pull-up on last Sunday, and he promptly pooped in it. Not fun. So I haven't done it again. He has gone almost each morning, and once he actually went twice, once before breakfast, and once after before we left for school. At school, he has gone several times, but only during the morning hours. The afternoon hours are pretty busy for them, they do crafts, and go on walks, and play on the playground. So that is understandable. I'm not sure when we'll switch over to pull-ups. Advice? Should I just deal with the poo-poo or should I wait until he is ready to poo-poo in the potty?
  • We finally seem to have enough clothing for Summer. I would like to get him some sandals too, but that is not high priority. Special thanks to Mimi for showing up with jammies and shirts. (even if some of them were FUBU:) JK Mimi.
  • Work has been good for me lately. Busy but manageable busy. And that is a good thing. My days go by fast and are rewarding. My co-workers are going on a big trip back to Chicago next week to visit some of our divisions. I'm sadly not able to come on this trip, ha-ha have fun guys:)
  • Annnd I can't go to Chicago because Cory is going to BMW School! He leaves for Chicago on the 14th, after Moose's doctor appointment, and will be attending school until the 16th. Then, because he is so close to home, he is going to visit my in-laws that weekend in Wisconsin. He will be coming home on the 18th. So I will be single-parenting all week. I'm not sure how I feel, it won't be too bad I don't think. Moose and I will just have to do some fun activities together.
  • Speaking of Cory, he is buying another car. Since we've met, we have owned a plethora of cars. It is just something you sign on for when you marry a car guy. He was very upfront about it. I won't even try to list them out for you, I don't even know if I could remember them all. This car he is buying is a bit different, because it is a lot newer than the others he has bought. He is buying a black '02 Mustang from one of our friend's brothers. The car will be here on Monday. Big thank you to Aaron for picking it up for us. I'm looking forward to driving it, most of you know I miss my blue '01 terribly (just guess what I'll be getting when I trade in my BMW) but this car is a stick-shift. Nothing I am sure I can't handle, I learned a long time ago, but I have to re-learn, and use it so I don't loose it.
  • He has sold the GT, which he bought for me last Summer. (remember I mentioned it has frame damage and would cost an arm and a leg to fix) So he has sold it to his new friend that owns some sort of customizing shop. They met when he put a roll-cage in Cory's SVO Mustang. I put one stipulation on our total car ownership, he can only have five cars at a time. We don't have room for more, and that includes my cars, right now I only have two, if you include the Coupe. This number may change when we finally follow through with our driveway plans. We want to take it around the side of the house, and eventually all the way to the back for a basketball court, and to the planned garage (Gawd help me, I'll never see Cory again after that is built).
  • Speaking of my backyard it is absolutely beautiful right now with all the big trees and flowering plants. Cory planted a raspberry bush, so we'll see how that goes. I added a spreading flower to my front bed, but since I started from seed, it is just now starting to pop up. I will take pics when it get a bit more noticeable.
  • We went to order our new door last weekend. We have been to Lowe's (I've called it our second home and I'm not exaggerating) at least three times looking at doors and sidelights. However we had never actually talked to anyone. So we finally approached the service rep, and she promptly informed us that we had to have our door professionally measured before we did a thing, including picking out the door, because "every doorway is different". So the contractor came this week, measured and sent the sizes to Lowe's. Our service rep. is supposed to call us, for a consultation. I was hoping this weekend, but she's not called yet. We have decided on the color, but I want to keep it a secret so you can be surprised when you see it on the house. So Mom and Mil, don't tell anyone!
  • Cory and I had a wonderful date last night. We went out with our new friends Beaven and his wife Elle. We met at the Pub and went to catch Iron Man. OhMyGoodness the movie was AWESOME. I throughly enjoyed it. The characters were perfectly cast, and the story was great. I have read a few Iron Man comics, but I didn't know the whole story so it was mostly a surprise. Of course, we had to stay through the credits to see the Extra Deleted Scene at the end that sets up the sequel. Let's just say I thought it was worth it.
  • We don't have a lot scheduled for today, so I want to take care of cleaning and laundry so I don't have to do it tomorrow. Not too sure what Cory has planned, he says that my gift is from Moose and not him. Moose did make a very cool craft at school that I will keep forever of course and put up a picture of on Mother's Day. Daycare is handy like that.
And that is all for now. I'm planning on posting on Sunday, but hey, it's my day and I might not:)

Saturday, May 3, 2008

My Little Boy's Boo-Boo

*Word has spread pretty quickly through the family, so you may have heard about this already. I want to tell the story all the way from start to end, because almost nobody has heard it all. Some of the story is a bit gruesome considering this is my two-year-old we are talking about, just wanted to warn any squeamish that they might not want to read this.*

Friday, May 2nd around 7 AM, I settled down at my desk at work. I spent about 30 minutes catching up on my email and planning my day. I had several projects that were due, and I was planning the best way to attack them, and get them all accomplished. I was in the middle of an email to one of the divisions when my desk phone rang.

Very odd, it was Cory and he absolutely just never calls me.

Cory: "Why the hell didn't you answer your cell phone? Daycare has been trying to get ahold of you!"
Cory: (not waiting for my answer) "Moose has caught his hand in a door and daycare, they've called us to take him to the hospital"
Me: "Oh God, okay, I'm on my way!"

So I raced over to daycare, only taking time to lock the door behind me, I left my tote bag by my desk, therefore also leaving my pain medicine for my wisdom teeth.

I don't believe I've ever driven so fast in my life. I contemplated driving the wrong side off the road for a few moments when I got caught behind someone who felt the need to drive below the speed limit. Luckily, daycare is only a few minutes away. Unluckily, the stretch of road between me and daycare is a hotspot for morning traffic, being a speedway towards downtown, and onto the bypass around our town.

I sat in traffic, actually squirming in my seat, my heart and chest actually hurting. I picked up my phone, called Sarah, hoping she could stop my house and pick up Doggie and Blankie for Moose to hold onto.

Damn, she's still asleep of course. It was only 7:30 AM, we're the only fools who are up so early.

FINALLY, I make it to the neighborhood turnoff to our daycare. Again, I get stuck behind someone who refuses to turn in front of anyone at the two-way stop sign. I was extremely frustrated. Of course they were driving totally normally.

I pull in to the daycare parking lot and Cory is standing out front waiting for me, with Moose in his arms, with one of Moose's teachers, and the head of the daycare.

I barely registered they were with him, I only saw Moose. And his hand wrapped in a bloody bandage with Cory holding it up above his head. Moose was holding on for dear life to a stuffed brown horse and a tie-dye stuffed dolphin.

They opened the car doors and everyone started talking at once. Cory was putting Moose in his car seat, trying to keep his hand elevated above his head. Moose was crying, not extremely loud, almost like he was already exhausted, and crying lightly. The teacher jumped in the front seat to help Cory get Moose in his car seat.

The head of the daycare opened by car door, and I turned to meet her, expecting to hear some sort of apology. My eyes already narrowed, I started to yell for some sort of explanation.

Instead, she said, "Here is the peice of Moose's finger. It is the fleshy part, it is on ice, they will be able to sew it back on. Try to stay calm."

Then she handed my my son's finger in a ziplock bag with ice.

My heart clenched somehow more than it already was. My eyes filled with tears. I have no idea what else she said to me, if anything more. She closed the door. Cory got in back with Moose.

And we headed to Central Baptist. Our hospital, that held our little boy and took such good care of him when he was born early.

I navigated traffic towards the hospital.

I must have. Honestly I don't remember it at all. I know now that I was in shock.

We pulled up to the ER. I left my car there next to a sign that said "ten minute parking only" and headed inside with Moose, still crying lightly, (nothing like I would think if you would have asked me) we quickly signed in. And they lead us directly back to a room. They pulled me away to register him, gave me his ID braclet. Which I again have no memory of, I only remember I could hear my baby crying. We finished up and she said something like, "...I'm not sure which room they put him in..." but I had already started to run off, toward the direction of my child's crying.

I found them easily. Cory was sitting on a bed, Moose was in his arms, and there about three nurses and a doctor in there, everyone trying to calm him down. Finally, an eternity, or maybe three or four minutes later, they doctor returned with a S-H-O-T, which he knowingly spelled for us, that would numb Moose's hand.

I am not a squeamish person. But when they took the homemade bandage that covered my son's hand. I felt like I was going to pass out. I actually had to look away.

They tip of Moose's middle finger, on his left hand had been severed at an angle. The nail was still intact above it, the fleshy tip of the finger had been cut off, leaving the jagged nail, and the tip of his finger bone exposed. Blood was flowing.

The sight of his finger upset Moose, understandably. He cried harder, and fought the doctor as he tried to inject Moose's hand with numbing medicine. This was almost too much for me. I felt the sobs start to rack my body, and then I couldn't control it any more. The tears flowing freely, no longer trying to contain it, I absolutely broke down.

It only took a few minutes for the shot to take affect. Moose stopped crying as soon as they wrapped his hand back up with a more professional sterile wrapping.

I called Sarah again, no answer.

I called my Mom at school.

Mom: "What's up?"
Me: (somehow calmly) "Moose had cut his finger off at daycare, we're at the ER."
Mom: (obviously not understanding how serious the situation is) "Hmm. Well do you need me to come over there?"
Me: "Yes."
Mom: "So he cut his finger?"
Me: "Yes. Off."
Mom: "Okay I'm on my way."
Me: "Please stop at the house and get Doggie and Blankie"
Mom: "Sure"

I called Cici, who works at Central Baptist, but who was off for the day, planning for my cousin, Jenn's baby shower this weekend.

Once I found some cartoons on the TV, Moose quietly sat in Cory's lap on the hospital bed.

About ten minutes later, the nurse came to lead us over to Radiology for X-rays. They wanted to determine if the bone had been broken or severed as well.

We weaved in and out of the maze of corridors in the hospital. She deposited us in the radiology waiting room. It was at this moment when Cory said, "Did you leave the car in a bad spot? You should go park it."

So I did. I ran through the hospital hallways, trying to go as fast as possible. God was obviously with me, somehow I felt guided through the hallways back to my baby.

I got back just as the radiologist showed up to take Moose back for X-rays. Thank God. Literally actually.

I'm very surprised in how good the hospital staff was with Moose. Absolutely everyone we encountered, from the man cleaning the floors, to the doctors, everyone was really good with him. Talking on his level, sensitive to his hurt arm, I really appreciated it.

The X-ray tech sat Cory and Moose in a chair and took "pictures" of his hurt hand. She left the bandage on, thinking it would be okay. We finished up and she was taking us back to our room when another nurse met us in the hallway, and told us we had to take the bandage off for the X-rays.

Now, Moose was not in any sort of pain, his whole hand was numb. But seeing his hurt finger made his cry and physically hurt me to see again. I can only imagine how he felt to see it again.

Seeing my son's pudgy little toddler hands on X-ray was almost too much again. I started to break down again, the X-ray tech put her hand on my shoulder and said to not worry, that it looked to her that the bone was not broken.

I know for a fact that X-ray tech and really anyone running a test in a hospital is not supposed to share information with the patient. So I really appreciated her telling me that.

She must be a mother too.

She led us back to our hospital room. And who was waiting for us, none other than Grandy, my Dad. He was extremely worried, Mom had filled him in, and he was really near us so he rushed over to the hospital. I filled him in, and we both got extremely emotional again.

Moose happily, quietly, sat with Cory on the bed, watching cartoons. As we waited for the doctor, Mimi, my mom, and Mark, my brother, showed up. The doctor showed up, and informed us that the bone had not been broken. They were sending us to a doctor that specialized in hand surgeries. Her office and surgery center was all the way across town.

So we gathered our X-rays, got directions, and headed across town. We talked a bit in the car, but Cory and I were already exhausted, probably due to our adrenaline wearing off. It was only about 10 AM at this point.

We arrived at the Hand Specialty Center, which had a huge sign across the building, and actually make me feel very secure in letting this doctor operate on my child. I had a few reservations just letting a stranger I had never met, cut into my child. But, I guess that is just the faith we put in doctors. Plus, she had been recommended by the ER, so she must be good right?

We waited a while it seemed, maybe a half hour? Luckily, we were able to turn the TV on and put it on Disney for Moose. I filled out a stack of paperwork this time.

They call us back, we sit in a room and wait just a few minutes before a nurse practitioner meets with us, and tells us we won't be able to meet with the doctor until we go over to the Surgery Center. I couldn't help but be upset. Why had we waited all this time here then? Why hadn't we just gone to the surgery center? What if we waited too long, and they couldn't re-attach the finger tip? What would happen?

Instead of asking these simple questions, I snap at the nurse, saying something along the lines of, "We have to go somewhere else?"

She calmly nods, and tells us she'll be right back. Cory tells me I don't have to be mean, and I snapped back at him.

We check out of there, and simply walk next door to the Surgery Center. We check in, only for them to tell us we are in the wrong place, only to realize we are in the right place, they just hadn't been notified yet.

At this point Sarah catches up with me, having frantically called my cell phone, emailed me, trying to find me. She knows something is wrong, obviously I wouldn't call her at 7AM for no reason. She insists on coming over and waiting with us. So she heads over.

They keep us waiting almost an hour, and I really thank God, yet again, for my mother. She said with Moose in her lap and sang and told him stories, and kept him totally entertained the whole time. He was blissfully attentive, listening and giggling to her. This place had
TVs but they were all tuned to CNN. Who seriously watches that?

At this point things had calmed enough for Cory to make some phone calls, so he called my Mil and Bil and filled them in.

Sarah showed up pretty quickly it seemed. But it must have been a while. She loved on Moose. And then they called us back!

They showed us back to a prep room with a bed. Moose and I sat on the bed, Cory sat in a chair. They closed the little curtain to the room. So then we waited.

Doctor N showed up about 20 minutes later. She told us they wanted to save the piece of finger, but they might not be able to do so, it all depended on what she saw when they unwrapped it. She wanted to wait until Moose was under before she unwrapped it, because she wait was traumatic of Moose to see his finger. Which we knew from the hospital.

She told us we were waiting until Moose's stomach was empty, because of the full breakfast we unknowingly fed him that morning. So she said it would be at least an hour until surgery. I send Cory out to tell M&D and Sarah to go get lunch, and to give them an update. At this point, Moose tells me he wants a nap, and promptly falls asleep in my arms. Cory returns and we carefully place him on the bed. He snuggles in and falls into a deep sleep. Poor baby was obviously exhausted.

Cory and I passed the hour whispering our fears to each other and tried to comfort each other.

The anesthesiologist arrived and answered our questions, telling us we couldn't wait too long to reattach the finger, because it was a "dead skin graft". There was no blood flowing to it. We would learn more about it later when the doctor talked to us after the surgery.

About 1:30PM, they arrived to take him back. Unfortunately, the opened the curtain really loudly and it woke Moose up. He sort of woke up, realized we weren't coming, and started to cry. We watched them wheel him down the hall, towards surgery. One of the anesthesiologists picked up Doggie and made him talk to Moose. Then they turned a corner, and we had to go back to the waiting room.

Sarah was sitting the waiting room, gracefully having brought us lunch, she looked like an angel. An angel with food. We were starving of course. We ate, and waited. Talking. Sitting and staring. I don't really remember.

I got a phone call from Jeana, my work friend. Turns out her and Kris wanted to get out of the office, so they headed over to visit me, and they brought my medicine! I hadn't even realized my jaw was throbbing! They met Cory and Sarah, and headed back to the office to cover for my absence.

Mom and Dad got back from lunch, Dad having run home to shower, he had been in his work uniform. So we sat and waited.

Sarah headed back to her office. We really appreciated her coming, and especially lunch. Thank you so much Sarah!

The nurse called us back, to meet with Doctor N, so she could tell us how surgery went.

Doctor N shows us, and fills us in. Moose did very well in surgery.

She reattached the piece of skin. She sewed it back on. It will act like a cap, so the finger can "rebuild itself". Eventually it will turn black, and fall off similar to a scab. The finger may or may not look normal, there is a good chance it will. Some of the nail bed was damaged, but should be okay. The nail will fall off and regrow relatively normally. There may be a scar, there may not. Moose is in a cast from the tip of his finger, to his shoulder. This will prevent him taking it off, or messing with it. We come back in two weeks for a new cast. It is a soft cast, but still pretty heavy for a little boy. At the end, he will probably just have a band aid protecting it. The entirely recovery will last eight to ten weeks.

We slowly absorb this will Moose wakes up from the anesthesia. How long will he actually be in a cast? Will this ruin our Florida vacation? Will he be scarred? How bad? Is his fingerprint changed? How will I give him a bath. HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THIS?

So then Moose woke up. We all went back to visit him while he woke up. The nurse has holding him and snuggling him when we got back to him. She depositing him in my arms and sat me in a soft rocking chair. Then she promptly brought over three chairs for Cory, and M&D.

We all sat there talking while Moose came out of it. About 45 minutes later, the nurse gave us the prescriptions for pain medicine and antibiotic. We got in our car in a torrential downpour, and headed home.

We stopped at Krispie Kreme, for treats for the extremely good boy, who did better than I ever would have thought. I mean, I know my child is extremely well-behaved, but I just never would have thought he would have done so well! Amazing.

Krispie Kreme was out of Original Glazed. What? Seriously? I kind of thought they were joking. but NO. So we got some cake doughnuts and chocolate covered ones.

I dropped Moose and Cory off at home, got them settled with doughnuts, and headed to Rite Aid to fill our prescriptions. When I got back, they were sitting on the couch, watching Dora the Explorer. Moose was sitting beside Cory, with his cast sitting on a pillow.

We were amazed all evening to watch Moose casually play with blocks, watch TV with us, and not complain once. I don't know if he understands or... what. I don't know. But I am amazed how well he had done.

Also, out of the blue, he asked to go twice to pee-pee in the potty. And he went. Twice.

We woke him up twice in the middle of the night for pain medicine. We were both hoping he would sleep in this morning. I mean, we sort of needed to recover from yesterday, you know?

Nope, 7:20 AM he woke up this morning, just like normal. Except this morning, I tried to put a diaper on him like normal, and he said he wanted to pee-pee in the potty. And he went!

Amazing. He has been quietly playing and watching Disney this morning. He has asked to go two more times to the potty and HAS GONE PEE-PEE EACH TIME.

???

Well, we are both very pleased, but it is kind of funny that this has happened right after our Finger Event.

All-in-all, I feel like my Mothering Ability was tested or something. I'm not sure how to describe it. Does that make sense? It sort of does in my head.

I wanted to get this all down before I forgot, not only to inform everyone in the family of the details, but to get it down to look at later when Moose is grown up.

Thanks to everyone who helped, called, and prayed and sent good thoughts. We are doing just fine in the Bee family. Amazingly.

Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to bathe Moose.




Thursday, May 1, 2008

Updates: Bullet Style

Bullets seem the easiest way to share the news that I have to share, so here we go:
  • My wisdom teeth are better, I have had to back to the oral surgeon twice more for new stuffings for my dry socket. I am doing much better, and I am almost off the pain meds. I have a final check up next Monday.
  • Moose told me he had to go "poo-poo" the other day and I almost had a heart attack I was so happy. After much grunting and groaning, we had an empty pot. Though right after a nice, loud, fart, he popped up and demanded a treat.
  • He needs new tennis shoes. Again.
  • Cory had a great time at Churchill Downs for Steve's bachelor party. They had a blast eating and drinking all they could stuff in at their suite. Very posh, considering I was at home drawing on the sidewalks with Moose in sidewalk chalk.
  • I finally received all of the promo items I have been working on at work. It is really great to see the final product that I worked so hard on! Plus, it's cool to get free stuff:)
  • Moose is doing extremely well in his big-boy-bed. We've permanently switched his bedtime from 7PM to 8PM (he never adjusted to the time change, probably because the light outside?) and that clenched it. About 2-3 times a week, he will wake up once and ask for water. Even though we carefully place a glass of water in his room, and inform him he does not need Mommie and Daddie to get water, he still calls for us to go with him across the room to get the water. It is annoying. But other than that? Loves his bed. Asks for "ny-nite with my Thomas" when it's time for bed. We got a door knob cover so he can't lock himself in his room.
  • I finally met our new neighbors that moved into the pink house across the street. I was so excited when they moved in. They are young like Cory and I, and they had a baby. Then, she kind of dressed a little hippy-ish. Then, he started up his electric lawn-mower. And I knew we would never be friends with them. Yea, we're not really hybrid-driving kinda people, you know? Today after work, the girl was out with their baby, and Moose spotted her and said he wanted to go see the baby. So we walked across the street and I introduced ourselves, and they introduced themselves. And I noticed her bra-less status, and Teva sandals... and we talked for a bit... that was about it. We might have a play date, she asked about our daycare. I'll keep you updated. She is a therapist for the hearing-impaired, isn't that interesting?
  • We are going to buy a new door and side lights for the house. We are going on Saturday to order it. I AM SO EXCITED, I can barely stand it. I set it up in PhotoShop, and looked at different colors, we've changed our minds several times on siding and accent colors. But now we've picked. Things are in stone. It is exciting.
  • Cory pulled the engine from the engine bay in the GT and discovered the car had been in an accident. So we've decided it would be too expensive to fix the frame damage and make it safe. He has it up for sale. He has decided he is going to buy a newer Mustang, and give me his coveted Coupe. Of course, he has to drop a new engine in it because I would never be happy with a 4-cylander. So the list of vehicles is changing yet again. Cory found a '02 that he is interested in. I'll keep you updated on that front as well.
  • I am so excited about my baby shower gift for Jenn's next baby shower! I worked all night Tuesday to get it "fixed". I want to post a pic but you'll have to wait until Sunday, after the shower, since she checks my site:) I really think she will love it.
That's all for now! I'm sure I'll think of several more things as soon as I hit publish! Oh well...