Sad Days

We came home from our grand trip with a Bang, literally. The first day we were home, I took all five boys grocery shopping. At the end of that exciting adventure, and with a fully loaded cart headed TO the checkout, Tommy took a dive and whacked his head with a sickening thud on the bottom of my grocery cart--metallic, rusty, sharp--and blood spurted forth. I knew immediately in my bones, as I sat down on the grocery floor and applied pressure with his handy sweatshirt, that this one would require stitches. AFter a time of him screaming his head off, the pharmacist ventured out of her office with a first aid kit and some ice. Her calm conversation was just what I needed to clear my head. I called James (who works 5 minutes away, thankfully) and he came and took over the groceries and other children. Amazingly, in this store, there is a medical clinic and a doctor, who happily stitched poor Tommy up in no time. He got 4 stitches and left the clinic smiling and sucking on a sucker. We failed to get a stitches picture, but you can see his bandaid in the picture below. I am so grateful it didn't happen in his eye.


Then, last Sunday evening, while James and I were visiting out on the deck with James' brother Tom, William and Ryrie pulled Georgie onto the trampoline. I knew I should go down and get him off, but everyone was laughing and having a fun time. Then came the piercing and continued scream. As I picked Georgie up I could sense he was protecting his body somehow, but I couldn't tell what was hurt on him and the older boys either didn't know or weren't saying. I got him in the house and tried to stand him up which he really didn't like. He kept favoring his right side, and crying, as I changed him and decided to try to put him to bed. He fell asleep for about an hour and then continued to cry, so I took him to the hospital. As it turns out, he fractured his tibia just below the kneecap. I could see it on the x-ray. So our one year old has done something I never have! Broken a bone.
It is very sad to see a baby in a cast. His first few days were quite rough. He just wanted to be held when he was awake and was pretty fussy at night, but today he seems almost back to his normal chipper self. He is already adapting and doesn't try to walk on it, but is back to his army crawling and sitting and rolling to get to things. According to the doctor, he will probably be able to stand on it in a week or so, but we'll just let him take it at his own pace. He will have the cast for about a month. :-(