Charlie's trip to the ER

Charlie got to have his first trip to the Emergency Room on Sunday. I'm glad he waited until he was at least two. Knowing that I have an active boy and having to take a couple childhood ER trips myself, It was just a matter of time before we took Charlie.

So this is how it happened...

We were enjoying a wonderful Sunday evening at our friends' house decorating gingerbread cookies...

...when we were sugared out, Max started playing with Charlie and Madeleine with the large yoga ball. Everything they were doing should have been totally safe and both kids were being well supervised by the adults. At one point, Max was holding Madeleine while Charlie climbed and sprawled his body across the yoga ball. He lost his balance and the ball quickly turned, rolling Charlie into a corner of the wall. He immediately cried and when Max picked him up we noticed some blood on his head. Kerri and Corbrett were quick to get some wet and dry paper towels while Max cleaned and investigated the wound and I tried to comfort my little boy. Max said it looked like it may be deep and it probably could use a stitch. Charlie settled down a bit and Kerri made him a goody bag from the candy we had decorated our gingerbread with. This was seriously a life saver. If the choice is between crying and candy, Charlie will choose candy. And I didn't have one little bit of guilt overloading him on candy if it was helping distract him from the pain.
Charlie had mostly calmed down but we decided to leave our get together a little early to see what the Doctors had to say about his head. The car ride was a little uncomfortable for him. He only cried though when we was trying to touch his wound and I held down his arms so he couldn't. I tried to distract him with more candy and looking at Christmas lights.

We arrived to the ER and were seen immediately. The doctor and nurse looked at the gash and said they would need to clean it to see how deep it was but it would likely need a staple. they told us that in many head cuts they are able to put in a little glue then tie the hair in a way that would hold the cut together, but Charlie's hair was too short (I had just cut it a couple days earlier). They put a gauze pad on the back of Charlie's head and held it there with some medical tape that would help numb the area so they could clean it,  investigate it further, then staple it if need be.

Charlie with his ninja headband

In the meantime, Charlie was feeling tons better exploring the doctors office and playing with bubbles. We were sent out to the waiting room to wait for the numbing to kick in. You would have thought Charlie was at some exciting outing with the way he was acting. He loved playing in the waiting room and running around giddily all while wearing his ninja headband. We had to wait for quite awhile this time and it was getting late but we soon were able to go see the doctor. They cleaned the wound and agreed that Charlie would need a staple. Charlie was so cooperative through all of this. I was definitely a proud mama. He let them clean his head even though he was getting quite wet, he let them check his ears, which has never been a favorite in the past, he sat completely still as they put a staple in his head. Whether it hurt or not, I still consider it a miracle that my 2-year-old sat still.
We were then able to bring him home. We worried that we would play with the staple or that he would wake up in a couple hours when the numbing had worn off but none of the above happened. He had a great nights sleep and didn't seem to notice the staple. There have been a couple times since that he was touched the staple out of curiosity but he hasn't picked at it or played with it constantly. This is another miracle. He will get the staple removed on January 2nd. Overall, I'm grateful that this was such a minor injury to what it could have been, I'm also grateful that Max was there and has a vast knowledge of emergency care. I'm also grateful that Charlie was so calm through this whole ordeal because I know that if he wasn't I couldn't have been calm either!

And here are some more blurry phone pictures. 

Getting ready to clean his cut. 

Cleaning the cut. 

Before the staple

Before the staple

Getting the staple...he was seriously so calm and didn't flinch!

And now he has a staple in his head

My handsome boys at the end of a long night!

Also, now Charlie and Max will have matching head scars. How exciting!

Christmas Miracle

I've been wanting to take a picture of Charlie under the Christmas tree since we set it up almost a month ago but Charlie would not have it. Any picture I attempted would end up being a shot of him running at me or away from the tree. We have these ones from previous years...

Here Charlie is not even a month old and he slept while we photographed him. 

The next year, when Charlie was One, we attempted some pictures again...this was the result. 

We thought it would be fun to see how long we could make this tradition last so I was really hoping we could capture Charlie at least cooperating by staying under the tree while we took a picture. 

So Sunday morning comes along which is always a struggle working in Charlie's naps with our church schedule. We have church at 12:30 so I try to put him down early enough that he can get enough sleep to be happy in church. It is often a struggle for him to fall asleep, then he sleeps like a bag of bricks when we try to wake him up to leave. This is exactly what happened this particular morning. I tried to wake him up and he wouldn't budge. I put on his socks and rubbed his back but still nothing. I picked him up and brought him downstairs all wrapped in his blanket. He was still fast asleep and slept in my arms for awhile. I realized that maybe we could take that opportunity to put him under the tree sleeping.  

And that is what happened....

But then the best part was that he was completely happy when he woke up. I was convinced that he would wake up grumpy when we set him under the tree. But he didn't. That was the Christmas miracle. He woke up and just started smiling all while staying cuddled up in his blanket. It was like he was so happy that he ended up under the tree. 

I love this kid!

Bowling with Shadow

On Saturday we got to celebrate Charlie's cousin, Shadow's 5th birthday. Shadow wanted to go bowling for her birthday so that is just what we did. Max and I haven't been bowling for awhile and this was Charlie's first time so we were pretty excited at Shadow's great idea. 

I somehow didn't take many picutres of the birthday girl because when Max wasn't helping Charlie bowl, I was with him, making sure he didn't run down the lanes. 

We were grateful for these handy ramps and the bumpers.

I LOVED watching his face as the ball rolled toward the pins!

Charlie and Shadow picking out their bowling balls

It didn't take Charlie long to realize that the grown ups were not using the wimpy ramp and so he thought he shouldn't either.

This caused some problems as we would just set his ball down (or drop) anywhere and push it. We worked with him to set it down at the start of the lane

But then the ball would go SO SO SO Slow! 

 At one point, the ball didn't make it all the way down, and got stuck in the gutter. 

After the first game, Charlie was starting to get reckless with the heavy balls so we made him sit on the bench and play pretend bowling on Max's phone, while Max and I continued to bowl a little bit. It didn't last long because Charlie is not one to sit still but we tried. 

And there goes the birthday girl!

 And Max's lovely form!

 And that's my husband being a cute daddy!

When our bowling time was up, we went to Round Table Pizza for pizza and cake. We played while we waited for the family to arrive.

 Charlie was pretty excited to try on the birthday hat!

Pizza Time!

This boy sure likes pizza!

 The birthday girl with her polka dotted cake! Happy 5th Birthday Shadow!

We had to leave right after cake to get to a friend's choir concert and it took Charlie no time to crash!

Children's Museum

This last week our friends invited us to the Children's museum. I haven't been here since I was a kid and admission can be pretty expensive so I haven't explored it with Charlie yet. Luckily, our friends have a pass so we got to explore for free! It was so much fun, and unlike OMSI, everything was aimed for a much younger crowd. Charlie had a blast. 

Madeleine and Charlie are awesome friends!

Planting a garden

This kid is an excellent climber!

The highlight attraction of the museum. 

This was like a huge Light Bright. I'm pretty sure I could have played here for awhile...too bad that 2 year olds have such short attention spans. 

I don't know what this is, they didn't stay here long enough to find out but it looked exciting. 

And then we got to the water area, I'm pretty sure that is Charlie's favorite.

The train

Brushing the alligator's teeth

Then there was the kitchen/restaurant/shopping area. That was my favorite when I was little and Charlie sure enjoyed it.

This kid sure has a thing for ovens...and helping in the kitchen. 

My climber at it again!

Doing some construction. 

There really was so much more to explore too. There was a veterinary clinic, and a camping area, and a theater area, and a clay place. And probably even more I didn't see. We stopped playing for snack time then went and ran around in the outdoor maze. This was one of the best parts. The kids could run around and be free but they couldn't get very far. Madeleine and Charlie ran and ran and laughed and laughed.

A secret doorway in the hedges.

Madeleine makes the best running faces!

As you can see, I went a little crazy with the maze pictures! They were just having such a blast. Anyway, this is just my advertisement for the Children's Museum. I'm considering getting a membership here when OMSI expires because it is definitely more for the little ones to participate in. Thanks to Kerri and Madeleine for inviting us. We had so much fun!