summer vacation 2009

We have returned home from a wonderful family vacation in FL. A lot of my dad's family gathered at the beach, and it was so fun to visit with everyone. Our big news from the trip...

...we made our first visit to the emergency room. Braden with pool hair and Caleb with Doggie & T-Rex.

The last afternoon there we took the kids for a last visit down to the beach and then to the pool. It was after 7 and we were going to get out of the pool in just a couple minutes to get cleaned up, have dinner, put the kids to bed and pack up, as we were leaving first thing the next morning. Caleb climbed out of the pool--just like he'd done all week long--and turned around to jump back in. Out went his feet and down he fell, his head hitting the edge of the pool. Braden got to him first, picked him up and quickly realized he was bleeding. I jumped out of the pool, grabbed a towel for Caleb's head and we yelled up to my cousin Jackie, sitting out on the balcony, that we needed the key to our condo. My parents had just walked by the pool on their way to visit my aunt at her condo, so we knew our place was locked. Braden started off toward our place when it occurred to me, "No, don't go there! Both my aunts are nurses, take him there!" So we turned and went the other direction toward their condos.

Before we even got to their place, we were met by both my aunts and another nurse who must have seen what happened and offered to help. They took one look and all three said in unison, "Yep. He needs stitches. Oh yes. You need to take him to the hospital." At that point, strong and brave mother that I am, I turned away and started to cry. Jackie hugged me and said, "Oh no, don't cry! He's gonna be just fine." She looked me in the eyes, "The same thing happened to my little boy when he was 6. Take him to the hospital, they'll stitch him up and he'll be just fine!" "I know, I know. (sniff sniff) I'm fine, really I'm fine. (sniff sniff) My son's bawling and hurt and I'm over here crying!" And with that, I got a hold of myself and we hurried back to our condo, put clothes on fast, grabbed some things for Caleb and left for Flagler Hospital, which fortunately is only about 10 minutes from where we stayed...or maybe it's 20 minutes? I'm not really sure. Braden was driving awfully fast!

Poor Caleb kept wailing, "I wanna go hoooome!" He calmed down in the car, but when he heard "hospital" he started bawling again. "I don' wanna go to da housepidal!" I don't think he even knew what the hospital was, but he didn't want to go there just the same. No one was in the emergency room, isn't that amazing? I think we were out in about an hour and a half. And when we left, the emergency room was nearly full. I was thanking God! An hour and a half is long enough. The staff was kind and they saw us right away. One nurse brought Caleb a simple stuffed dog (a dog shaped pillow really) made by their hospital volunteers. I love how kids love the simplest things. Caleb promptly named him "Doggie," and Doggie proved to be a great comfort and distraction while we waited for the doctor. The doc gave him just 3 staples, so it really was not that large of a split. It could have been much worse.

Caleb was exhausted and starving by this time, so we bought him a burger from Wendy's. (Yes, I bought my child fast food!) Tylenol helped take the edge off, but Caleb was definitely sore that night. But he only woke up once, and was a little sore the next morning and then has been fine ever since. Of course, we were to leave first thing the next morning, and Braden and I had planned on packing that evening, but after getting home just before 11, that wasn't happening. So we were scrambling the next morning but managed to pull it all together, and we left only 40 minutes later than planned. We had an almost uneventful trip home, but that's another story for another time....