Clumsy Steph

I'm clumsy, I know, I'll admit it. Although I really must say that this time it wasn't really clumsiness ... just a plain accident. But sometimes you just get this sinking feeling that if you weren't so clumsy maybe these things wouldn't happen.

Rob decided to try and fix the doorbell yesterday. So he removed the doorbell cover and went to work. Then lunch time came and next thing he was off to run a few errands etc. The doorbell remained unfixed and the doorbell cover remained on the stairway floor. I have setup the stage ... can you guess where this is heading?

So Steph is on her way down the stairs with Matthew. Most of the time Matthew is lazy and wants to be carried, this time he wants to walk. I am a few steps down and he states he wants me to hold his hand. Okay, no problem, I can do that. The rest I'm not quite sure but I'm guessing that after I turned around to take his hand I took another step down ... at which point I stepped on something and felt myself losing my balance. I just remember thing "I'm not going to fall, don't fall, get your balance, not going to fall ... falling, going to fall, let go of Matthew, don't take Matthew with you". And there I went head first on my back down 8 stairs. Unfortunately Matthew did come with me, whether I didn't let go fast enough or whether he tried harder to hang on I don't know ... but Matthew came with, 12 stairs down ... and we ended up in in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

I banged my head the whole way down, I remember that clearly. After I realize I was going to survive my concern was Matthew who of course was crying. We (friends were visiting) picked him up and I settled in a chair to have a look at him. His cry told me he was quite hurt or very shooken up. Usually I'm a person who has trouble deciding what to do when someone is injured for fear of overreacting ... but one look at his wrist and I knew we needed to have him checked out. It was only slightly swollen, but the way he was holding it and the angle it was at didn't look good.

We applied ice while I tried to gather myself and put things together. Although I knew (from our experience with Rebecca's broken collarbone) that they only had an x-ray technician on site at Dunnville Hospital until noon on the weekends we still decided to go there, figuring they could call a tech in if necessary. It would likely still be faster then travelling and waiting at Mac.

I don't remember what time I left, but it was the same as our visit with Rebecca. We didn't even have to sit down but went straight into a room, the nurse wasn't even done taking down the details and the doctor came in. Already having heard the nurse taking details he jumped right into checking out Matthew. Seeing as the x-ray technician on call lived 30km away and it would take a bit by time she arrived he decided to put a splint on and send him home, to come back for an x-ray in the morning. His theory was that if the wrist was broken they would treat it the same way - either with a splint or a half cast - so leaving it until the next morning would be fine. I got the impression from him that he didn't think it was broken but they just had to make sure. I was back home in less then an hour.


Our amazing little boy cried pretty much from when he got hurt until when he arrived to the hospital. He cried the whole way to the hospital, breaking my heart. I just wanted to stop and hold him but I knew that wouldn't help either. We get into the hospital and he stops crying. He interacts again and does good ... does he perhaps have some of the same blood as James?!?!? The swelling went down from the ice and he seems okay. I could see him flinching and blinking back tears as the doctor checking, but he didn't make a peep ... I must say I was very proud of him. He so reminded me of James.

I thought I'd be up with Matthew throughout the night, but he did wonderful. Waking for his usually "I peed so much I need my diaper, pjs and bed changed", completely cooperating during that time as I changed his clothes. When he awoke in the morning I found him in bed with his splint off. When I told him we had to put it back on he insisted "owee all gone". So I changed the phrase to ask him "where does it hurt?" To which he replied by pointing at his wrist. "Okay, then we need to put this back on" I told him. And he obliged.

We returned to the hospital again this morning at 9am. This time without the crying. He was quite chipper and happy to walk on his own and chatter and talk. He was completely amazing for his x-ray, much to the technicians surprise. After she took the first shot she said to me "I don't need to tell you he has an injury". Nope, I knew that, I could tell by the way he was holding his arm (we were becoming concerned that maybe something was wrong with his collarbone also). The technician explained that she needed him to hold his arm at another angle but she wasn't so sure he would cooperate ... but he did without so much as a flinch or complaint.


After a bit of waiting (as the doctor and nurses chattered at the desk and we listened to their conversation knowing that there wasn't anyone else in the place that needed to be attended to) ... the doc reviewed the x-ray and came to advise me that his wrist is broken in two spots - the two major bones in the wrist (or right above the actual wrist). The one break is clean, but the other is shift up or back or something like that. We would need to go to Welland Hospital and have an Orthopedic Surgeon sedate him and reset it.


He had already contacted his buddy in Welland who was expected to go into OR later in the morning, so if we hurried we could get this fixed before that. Off we went to Welland. After waiting for a bit (funny how the doc appeared right after I went back to admitting and asked if the doc was in OR) ... the surgeon seen Matthew. What the doctor in Dunnville failed to tell him was that Matthew had had breakfast. Breakfast means they would not do an anesthetic ... grrrr ... this after sitting in the waiting room for an hour telling Matthew he couldn't have anything to eat or drink. Now we have to return again tomorrow to have a cast put on. The worst part being that we have to wait until 3pm to have it done (but be there earlier just in case), and if OR is busy we'll have to wait longer yet ... but all that means no food after 8am. I haven't updated the blog for a long time on Matthew (I've been meaning to, really, just never seem to get around to it), but one big, wonderful, amazing change in Matthew is the fact that he loves to eat now (and he's a very happy fellow now too!)!! And when he's not eating he's drinking ... he drinks and drinks ... and pees and pees!! Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, it's going to be a long day).

At the same time, as awful as I feel that this happened, I remain thankful that it's not more serious and especially that there was no head injuries. Not to say my head wasn't sore last night, but given how often I have headaches I can handle an self-inflicted one. Today I am quite sore, espeically my neck and strangely my upper legs, with some lovely sore brusies on my butt/lower back area. As well I pulled a liagament in my thumb ... least the ER doctors figured that's what it is ... it's not broken anyways, but it sure hurt by this morning (funny I didn't really notice it hurt until bedtime last night). Guess we'll have a nice reminder for the next weeks of why it's not a good idea to leave things on the stairs.


Matthew's splint and icing the wrist. I couldn't figure out what he was babbling about this morning when he kept talking about beans and corn ... but when I got the "ice" out I realized what he was trying to say.



















Dunnville ER lacks the toys and entertainment to keep a child happy while waiting ... but that doesn't matter since you don't usually have to wait there. Welland ER on the other hand had a nice (haha) children's playarea ... check it out




















See all the lovely toys and entertainment there. Don't you love the provided seating!!!!!!! We we seen the nice empty playarea we just went and sat in the waiting room and I entertained everyone else by trying to keep Matthew distracted from asking for juice. But after I took Matthew to the bathroom to changed him I noticed the TV in the corner of the playarea ... anything to distract him from asking me for juice!! So we found Treehouse and spread our coats out and there he lay until we seen the doctor. I know to bring entertainment with for our likely long wait tomorrow.

I'm sure I'll have more photos as a follow-up in the next day or so.

Kaboom

Those little fingers figure things out so quickly.

In January I figured Matthew was old enough to begin tinkering on the computer for a bit. The girls loved a certain Crayola colouring program at his age and so I started him on that. It's a pretty safe program for him to just click around and not do much damage. It's great because it tells him the colours he's clicking on or the letters or numbers he's keying in. I will never forget how Marietta learned her colours off this program. I still remember sitting at the table on the farm having snack time and we asked Marietta what the colour was of a certain object was. She stood there and pondered for a bit, then suddenly ran away. Before we could call her back we heard the computer and the words cyan", "magenta". Promptly she returned to the table to tell us the colour of the object was "magenta". :)

After a couple days the girls were trying to tell Matthew where to click and I reminded them that he had just figured out how to click and he didn't know how to direct his mouse and click at a designated spot yet. A couple days later I heard a very common sound (this game has gone through a few kids in our house) as Matthew was playing on the computer: "erase or explode a picture" and then another click and "kaboom". Knowing that his colouring picture had just disappeared by this act I went to put a new picture up for him to colour assuming that he had just accidently exploded the picture. As I walked away I heard "erase or explode a picture" and then another click and "kaboom". Hmmm ... coincidence?? Let's try this again. Again as I walk away I hear "erase or explode a picture" and then another click and "kaboom". Definitely not a coincidence. It only took him a couple days and he had quite masters how to direct his mouse to do exactly what he wanted. Unbelieveable how fast these kids catch on to something that you would think would take some time to figure out and get their fine motor skills to coordinate.

Although his attention span isn't very long (which is just fine) Matthew enjoys his computer time each day.

Shuffleboard

We decided it was time to add Matthew to the (dutch) shuffleboard (sjoelen) score list when he actually managed to score 26 points one turn. He loves playing at it and is getting pretty good at it too.

Sledding

The first week of January we finally had enough snow to go sledding ... and the best part is that all we have to do is walk to the back field and we got lots of hills to chose from ... as the pictures in the previous post show. We're not sure how good some of those other hills are, it's possible the blowing of the snow made them look better then they are, but for the kids it will keep them busy and happy. I love it that we don't have to make a special trip just to go sledding. No more loading sleds up into the van and trying to work around naps. The kids can just tromp on out there on their own. ... although it's always nice when mom and dad come with them (a comment I overheard one of the girls saying with great excitement when we did go out one afternoon).






The hill we decided was the best to sled on does actually end up on the creek ... so it may not always be an option for the kids, but on this fine day we had a lovely time wearing it in.




Although we have not had a lot of snow this winter we have had mostly cold weather ... a great winter for skating. I had originally stated that I would not let the kids skate on the creek since it is flowing water ... but after seeing how thick the ice is and checking it out myself I guess I'll give in ... as long as I'm confident it's been good and cold long enough to be safe.

The creek was originally flooded during the first freezing of the year. Here Marietta is checking out what happens when the water goes down after a good freezing. The kids thought it was quite amazing how such thick ice could just crack and leave a ledge at the bottom of the hill. Matthew had lots of fun digging under the ice.

Sledding Fun


















































And then Rebecca discovered something even more fun and challenging then just plain old sledding (see Matthew sitting at the bottom of the hill by the cracked ice)

Rebecca heading downhill ..... uh oh starting to wipe out

Wipe Out!!! But ... hanging on to finish the run in sitting position :)

Marietta didn't have as much luck on finishing her trip downhill as "gracefully" as Rebecca

Now if only we could have some more snow that would stick around long enough for the kids to get out and enjoy the hills a bit more often.

From The Back Field

The first week of January we finally got some snow. Unfortunately it didn't stay extremely long, but long enough to enjoy it for a bit.

Our house from the back of the property
































The fields behind our house

Christmas Holidays - Week Two

The second week of the Christmas Holidays was much the same as the first. Something going on each day, but it was a enjoyable business that was relaxing and fun as it wasn't overly busy or rushed ... a sleepover, some swimming, a birthday party, some visiting, etc.

Nephew/Cousin Aiden turned 3 on December 30th



















The girls requested oliebollen (dutch donuts - deep fried yeast dough sprinkled with icing sugar- very greasy, very oilly, very unhealthy) for New Year's Eve/Day. I must have made it last year, or maybe it was two years ago ... I don't remember, but the girls did. Marietta loves to be involved in any sort of interesting baking and so she was my helper for the oliebollen, while Rebecca put her talents to use by keeping Matthew entertained, mostly outside.















































The worst thing about oliebollen, is the stink that the deepfrying creates. Not wanting to be one of those folks that sits in church on new years eve smelling like oliebollen we made sure we were all done by lunch. Thankfully it was a mild enough day that we could have the windows open the whole time (okay the free gas heat we have did help that aspect a bit). Once done we all showered, left the windows open, turned the heat down and we all crawled into our beds for a nice snooze to prepare for the late night ahead .... okay the girls didn't sleep, but they rested and read and were quiet while I did :)

We spent New Year's Eve at Dave and Ange's with a couple other couples. It's so great to live close by now. We let the girls sleep over since they have been begging for months to have a sleep over with Brent and Mitchell and took Matthew home with us. Matthew was up early enough the next morning that I prepped some breakfast and then we headed back over to Dave and Ange's for a breakfast/brunch and some GTing and sledding ... something the girls seem to think is a requirement for New Years Day ... even though we must remind them over and over that snow is required to do this.

So this is the extent of the snow we got for the Christmas Holidays. A piddling little dusting ... but in the kids eyes it was enough to go sleding and GTing ... so we didn't deter them all too much.












































Uh, oh ... wipe out (Brent and Vivian)
















Here's the kid who absolutely hated the sled last year ... yup, no fear this year :)

After nap time we headed over to Ike and Heather's to help Heather celebrate her birthday.

Fondue Fun

Their family had started a puzzle the night before but it turned out to be a bit more challenging then expected, so througout the afternoon everyone would stopped by and spend a few minutes (or more :) trying to figure it out ... when we left it wasn't much further then when we arrived.

"Happy Birthday to You"

Lego .... it's not a word of a lie when the boxes says it's for ages 3-99
Matthew was completely enthralled with this dump truck and it's load of rocks

















Ike and Rob were just as thrilled with the rest of the box and were full of ideas on what to do with this and that

Matthew loves it at Uncle Ike and Aunt Heather's seeing as everyone sort of dots on him there. The kids love to play with him as well as the grown ups ... he fits in well there and always enjoys himself.