Tough break!

(Don't you just love my tongue-in-cheek post titles?)
Anyway...just an update. Sweet little Nick's elbow is broken, unfortunately. One more set of x-rays coming later this week, before getting a cast put on. I'm sure I'll post more pictures of him later. It's such a bummer, for him, with his last day of preschool coming up next week, baseball season starting and lots of other school activities going on the next couple of weeks, not to mention the fact that having his right arm incapacitated makes playing video games very difficult ~ his little life is a mess! Not really; he's actually handling this well. The first couple of nights he woke up crying when he'd inadvertently rolled over onto his "owie", but mostly he's been doing okay. I'm not particularly looking forward to trying to do the bathing thing with a cast, but I guess it's not a big deal. Things could always be worse...!:)

A break in the "silence"...

Aahh, my poor little guy! Today Nicolas was climbing down from the trampoline to the bench used to get on and off, and he fell, landing straight down on his arms. One of his little arms didn't fare so well! He cried all afternoon and wouldn't move (or let us move or touch) it at the elbow. We took him in to the pediatrician's office where the doctor felt just by examining him that it was probably fractured. I carried him into the x-ray room, while Chris sat waiting with the rest of the kids. It was awful! I had to hold back my own tears, while trying to help the x-ray tech bend, contort, and basically force his arm into the most painful looking position to get the right picture. Afterwards, Chris said he could hear his cries of pain out in the waiting room.

Thankfully, the x-rays showed only some minor abnormalities around the elbow and ulnar bones, meaning that there was no obvious fracture, but some trauma there. They put a cast-like splint on the little guy, and on Monday we'll take him back for a repeat x-ray (yippee), to see if any breaks have materialized, as the doctor said it can sometimes take a few days after the injury to appear. Hopefully that won't be the case and he'll just have to wear the splint for a little while. It makes it harder that Nick can't talk enough to be able to explain what he's feeling. When we got home, he just kept saying: "Owie, owie!" over and over. Well, so much for the progress we were making with him sleeping in the big boy bed; I put him in his porta-crib in our bedroom for tonight so I can keep an eye on him. It's funny that he's smiling for these pictures I took, considering how sad he was all afternoon!

Happy May Day, and other updates.

I opened my bedroom door this morning to find this sweet treasure:Not much need for me to speculate which of my darling children put it there; it was Samuel, of course. I don't deserve such a thoughtful, loving child! What a happy way to begin May Day. Thanks, Sam!
Following up with the new sleeping arrangements for Nicolas, I can gladly report that things are going considerably well. He's done okay with the transition from his crib, although if I want him to fall asleep at a reasonable time, I have to lay with him in the bed for just a bit, and he usually will fall asleep pretty fast. The older boys also go to sleep much sooner if I am in their room with them for a while when they first go to bed. On the few occasions I haven't (weekends, etc.), they stay up "talking/playing" and this is the price Nicolas pays the following day:I think Zipper was intrigued by the lump on the floor, but Nick didn't care much for being licked awake!

My baby no more.

We moved Nicolas from the safety and isolation of his crib (which was in Sophie's bedroom closet), into his brothers' room to sleep with them in the "big boy bed." It went alright, for the first night. They did stay up a lot later than he is used to, so I'm pretty sure he's going to need a nap today. Here's to hoping the transition goes well and that we don't all lose too much sleep in the process!

Is this what it's come to?

We had an interesting occurrence yesterday. Around noon, someone robbed the bank here in our little town. The elementary school was on "lock-down" until the normal release time, 4pm. Chris was on duty at the time it happened, so since he was involved the the search for the suspect (who is still on the loose, incidentally), he called me and let me know what was going on. What I found interesting was how each of the two boys reacted to the situation. When I picked them up from school, Noah, the 9 year old, couldn't stop talking about what happened, saying with such excitement in his voice: "Mom, the school was on lock-down because a man robbed the bank! We need to go home and watch the news; I need to know what's going on right here in our own community!!" Later, after watching the news snippet where they showed video footage from the bank of the robber, he said: "Good. Now I know that if I see a male Hispanic wearing a blue shirt and hat, I need to dial 911."
Sammy, on the other hand, was totally quiet as he got in the car after school. Not a word out of him. As we were on the front porch going into the house, I put my arm around him and asked him if he was alright. He instantly had tears well up and drip down his cheeks. I asked if he was scared at school today, and he said, meekly, "Yes." Poor little guy!

Happy Easter!

Here they are, baskets in hand, ready to hunt for eggs.Easter morning...
"...Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life..." ~Romans 6:4

Daddy-daughter date.

Here are Chris and Sophie eating dinner before going on a date. Chris is surprising her by taking her to see the new Hannah Montana movie. I can't wait to hear how much she liked it!