Play-Doh

Have you ever put a toy away for a few months and then brought it back out? What did your kids do? Probably acted like they won the lottery and thought you were the best mom to get them a "new" toy, huh. Well it has been a while since I put up all the play-doh in our house. I hid it from the kids because I was tired of them sneaking it into the playroom and finding blobs of it squished into my carpet. Yesterday I thought it was time for them to play with it again. Meysa and Lauryn were wanting something to do for quiet time while Wyatt napped. You would have thought my girls had never played with play-doh. They played literally for hours with it. From about 12:30-4:00, and they were bummed when I told them they had to clean it up. You have to have lots of tools to really play with play-doh right?
Meysa was having a really great time. She made these gingerbread men. She kept having to accessorize more and more.

Then she thought they needed to do a little exercise to work off a little of that chub!!
Little Lauryn had a ball just mixing colors, making balls and then destroying them, and then starting all over again.
This was Lauryn's final masterpiece.

I think I'll have to put up toys more often. I like the reaction I get when the kids think they are getting something new!!

Tired

This story really starts on Sunday afternoon. The kids were doing their best to have a quiet and restful Sunday afternoon by having a spinning derby with our leather reclining chairs. Ayden was spinning Wyatt and he got a little over zealous and whacked his thumb on the wall. He howled like he was being killed. I checked him out and it looked like it would have hurt. His poor little thumb was already swollen and it felt funny!! I told him we would have Dad check it when he got home (yes he was on again on Sunday). Ryan got home after the kids were in bed and he did go and check on it but didn't really want to move it a whole lot and wake Ayden up!! Ayden could bend his thumb but if you put any pressure on the area between his thumb joint-close to the hand and his joint near the end of his finger he would shriek. Well Ryan got a better look at it last night and said he thought it was broken!! I thought of taking him in this morning but then thought of wrestling three kids at the Dr.'s and Ayden missing school and decided I would just take him to the ER and have Ryan stay with the other kiddos who were on their way to bed!

The rest of the story is well kinda frustrating. Ayden and I left our home at about 8:10 after we had family home evening with the missionaries at the church and the girls and Wyatt were in bed. We got to the base at about 8:35-8:40. We were through triage and x-ray by 9:18. Now here comes the amazingly, aggravating part. We were not seen by a doctor until 3:30 AM(that was the time on Ayden's discharge note stating when he was seen by the doctor). Yes you read that right, I said 6 HOURS. Now granted they were busy with 4 different incoming traumas during that time. I get that. But seriously 6 hours. What did we do for all that free time you ask? We watched the movie Cars 2 1/2 times, and then had to endure crappy CW tv (can I tell you how thankful I am that I don't get any cable!!). Thankfully Ayden didn't see much of it he finally fell asleep once we got him a blanket. It was freezing in there. Finally we were called back at about 3:00am and then another trauma came in, and I actually think 3:30am was the time when the Dr. actually looked at Ayden's films, not the actual time at which he saw Ayden. I think that was more like 4:00am. Well I know you are on the edge of your seat as to Ayden's diagnosis....a mere contusion to his Right thumb is all we have to show. His films were negative for a fracture the doctor said but he wanted to repeat films in a week and he wanted to splint it just to be safe. A grand total of about 5 minutes was all that was needed to tell me that. So we waited again for a nurse to come and do a thumb spika splint (twice) and we were finally walking out of the ER doors at 4:40am. We got back in time for Ryan to leave for work. Ryan himself didn't sleep all that well, he was restless worrying about us.

I am sure most of you have also had experiences like this where you wait for an insane amount of time for treatment in an ER. What bust my bubble I guess is this. Why could someone have not looked at his films say around 10:30 heck even 11:00 (it doesn't take that long for the films to come back-remember they were taken at 9:15pm) and determine that it was not broken, would not need an Ortho consult and casting and could be splinted and followed up with Peds and sent us the HECK home? Another bubble busting thing is there were people with the common cold that were taken back before him (and all these people were there after Ayden mind you-and yes I understand about triage). Why not take back the five minute splint job, get them taken care of and then take back the cold pt. that will take more time and resources. Heck we didn't even get a room, we got the hallway gurney!! It blows my mind!! I guess to make a LONG story SHORT Ayden and I are running on fumes and Ryan is on low too. I got about an hour and fifteen minutes of sleep this morning before Lauryn was at my bedside asking for breakfast and then I got about a two hour nap this afternoon when Wyatt was down for his nap. I don't think I will do the ER ever again. I'll take wrestling three kids in the Peds clinic before I spend another 8 hours waiting to be seen in the ER!!

The long waited for splint. I kept saying it better be broken for the amount of time we are waiting to see a doctor, but I am obviously glad it is just bruised. Ayden was so tired he slept the entire time the nurse was splinting his arm. I guess we will see if it is broken or just bruised really bad in a week with our new films.
Next time thumb, stay away from the wall would you!!

Late Bloomers

Even though it is almost officially autumn our roses are blooming like crazy!! Last April when we were redoing our yard we almost went without putting roses into our backyard bed. I am so glad we went ahead and add them. They put out beautiful and fragrant flowers. The kids love cutting and putting them in our own vases (mason canning jars) and looking at them on the table. Ryan loves it too because he doesn't have to buy flowers as often!! I am glad we have one last reminder of summer before there are no more late bloomers!!

Post-Call Saturday

I was feeling a bit of cabin fever this morning as I was trying to keep the kiddos quiet so that Ryan could catch some sleep after being on call last night. It was raining this morning but had stopped and the sun was out with some blue skies peeking out behind the clouds. I wanted to get out of my house if for only a little while. So I got the kids dressed and the babies strapped into the stroller and we were off on walk. There was a breeze with a little bit of bite to it and it so made me feel like autumn was right around the corner. I had my camera over my shoulder ready to snap a few pics (see above). The older kids loved riding their bikes in the empty lots around our house. Lauryn wanted to pick every flower (read weed) that she saw and Wyatt fell asleep. I had read a few articles on some photography websites about photo scavenger hunts. For instance, A-Z (either something that starts with a, b, c, ect. or objects that look like the letters), hunting for things that are all the same color, or have to do with the same thing. I think it would be fun to do the A-Z (looks like the letter) hunt!! It felt wonderful to get outside and breathe in the fresh air and see the start of a new season. Now what to do with the kids for the next 2-3 hrs. until Ryan gets up?!!

Ayden earns his Bobcat

Ayden has been participating in the scouting program since he turned 8 in June. Our troop takes the summer off and starts again with den meetings and pack meetings once school starts again. We had our first pack meeting on Tuesday and Ayden was given his Bobcat. He worked really hard over the summer to earn it. He also earned a patch for attending scout camp in August at Ft. Lewis. He has been enjoying scouts so far and is really trucking along on earning his wolf.

I wasn't able to get any pictures at the pack meeting because Ryan stayed home with the two littlest ones and Meysa, who came with me, doesn't know how to use my new camera (a fact I want to remain that way). So we will have to settle for this crazy picture of Ayden!! He is such a goof ball.