One little monkey jumping on the bed. . .

. . . he fell off and broke his collarbone.
I was lying in bed this morning, watching the Today Show. Abric came upstairs to snuggle with me. Of course, snuggling for a 2-year old means 10% snuggling and 90% jumping. He took one awkward bounce and went right over the edge.

I flew out of the bed and just watched him. If anyone knows Abric, he is tough. He usually gets right back up and runs around. This time, he just lay there and whimpered. I wanted him to move on his own, because I didn't know if he had hurt his neck or not. He finally rolled over a little, then I carefully held him against me while I comforted him. I laid him back on our bed. He wouldn't move himself for over an hour. He just whimpered and said, "Owie." He wouldn't point to what hurt. I kept going over his head, shoulder, collar bone, arms, back, etc. He wouldn't tell me what was wrong. I figured he would be screaming if he had broken a bone, but he was just lying there, favoring his right side.

To make a long story short, I called the doctor, and they referred me to an orthopedic urgent care.

They took an X-ray and there it was: a broken clavicle.
He has to wear this backpack brace for the next 4 weeks. (Over Christmas…. yay! Not!)

We have only been home for an hour and he has already taken it off twice. This is going to be fun.
I was just saying the other day that we had never had a broken bone yet, and how crazy that was with having 4 boys. I should have knocked on a bigger piece of wood. I would have thought it would have happened to one of the older boys, not my two-year old! One thing I did learn, though, is that this kid must have a super high pain threshold!

A Most Traumatic Sliver

Earlier this morning, while I was getting ready for the day and the boys were waiting for the bus, Harrison screamed, "OW! OW!" (repeat about 100x). Since Harrison tends to be overly dramatic about some things, I didn't rush downstairs to see what was wrong. I waited for him to come to me. He showed me a sliver in his large toe. It looked like it had gone straight in, so I couldn't tell how long the sliver was. I sent Zane on the bus while I soaked Harrison's toe. Long story short, we tried working on the sliver, it wouldn't budge. Harrison was super-afraid of the tweezers and needle, even before I even touched his toe. I put some neosporin and a band-aid on it and figured his body will have to just work it out by itself for a couple days before we try again.

Enter: Daddy comes home from work.

We ended up soaking Harrison's foot again for about 1/2 an hour. Andy got Harrison to compromise: he would let us work on the sliver for 3 minutes. If we couldn't get it out, we had to stop.

After 3+ minutes later. (It took us almost 5 minutes just to figure out how to wrestle him to the ground hold him still.

Enter: one-quarter inch long sliver.

OUCH!

Cellu--what??

We got home from North Carolina late Sunday night. On Monday morning, Ewan woke up early and came into our room. Andy noticed a red, quarter-sized circle on his chest. It looked like a bug bite, so he didn't think anything of it. Later that afternoon I noticed that Ewan had a huge bug bite on his belly and it looked like it was growing an arm. I called my mom. She suggested I draw a line around it to see if the swelling worsened. It did.
Luckily, we were able to get Ewan into the doctor that afternoon--Batman cape and all. The doctor said it was cellulitis. I had never heard of it before, so here is an excerpt from mayoclinic.com:

Cellulitis (sel-u-LI-tis) is a common, potentially serious bacterial skin infection. Cellulitis appears as a swollen, red area of skin that feels hot and tender, and it may spread rapidly.

Skin on lower legs is most commonly affected, though cellulitis can occur anywhere on your body or face. Infections on the face are more common in children and older adults. Cellulitis may affect only your skin's surface — or, cellulitis may also affect tissues underlying your skin and can spread to your lymph nodes and bloodstream.

Left untreated, the spreading infection may rapidly turn life-threatening. That's why it's important to seek immediate medical attention if cellulitis symptoms occur.

I felt so bad for Ewan. It hurt to touch his "owie", but he was very brave while the doctor checked him out. He is now on an anti-biotic to help his body fight the infection. Get well soon, little buddy!

Two Slivers = Two Owies

Last night as I was drying Ewan off after his bath, I noticed these two dark lines on the top of his foot. They were two huge slivers! One was even starting to become infected. I felt so bad for him, but I had to have Andy come upstairs to hold Ewan while I got the slivers out with the tweezers. Ewan was much better than I thought he would be with the whole situation, as long as we showed him the sliver after we had pulled it out.
He was very excited to have his first-ever Spiderman band-aid on his foot. This is his first band-aid - worthy owie. He kept saying, "Nie-nan. Nie -nan." (Translation: Spider-man. Spider-man.)
Andy and I have come to the realization that his slivers could have only come from one place: our living room floor. It is hardwood and shows major wear and tear. We have no idea when the floor was refinished last. We were planning on doing it in the next couple months, but it looks like this project my have to take top priority. I can't have my babies getting slivers from a home they should be safe in!
(Michael and Sarah just refinished two of their bedroom floors for the same reason. See their story HERE.)