A Traumatic Night

Well tonight started out normal enough. I arrived home and ate dinner after everyone else had finished- this is pretty normal. I normally get home about 6:00 PM. Atticus and Adrienne got in the shower together. I got them out and dried them off. My sister called and I talked to them while the hellions were running around playing. I handed off the phone to the wife so I could get the kids finished for bed. Got the pajamas on Adrienne, Atticus and Lolo and then while the wife was still on the phone.

Adreinne brought me the green from that is a puppet that croaks the tunes of Old McDonald, Frere Jacque and London Bridges. They love it when I chase them with the frog and make it nip at them when they are writhing in giggling fun on the floor. I chased Adrienne and Atticus into the the master bedroom and had a few songs they both jumped up and bolted out of the bedroom down the hall and towards Atticus' room. Atticus entered his room and immediately slammed the door as Adrienne reached for the wrong side of the door (the side with the hinges). The door slammed on her index finger and she immediately started screaming. I was right behind them but not close enough to stop the door slamming. Blood was going everywhere and I grabbed her up and took her into the master bathroom. I had a look at it and it looked like the tip of her finger was crushed.

Her fingernail was perpendicular to the rest of her finger. It made me feel so, so, so horrible for playing part of this. It was her right index finger and she is right handed. I felt like such as ass even though I knew that these things kind of happen. We are always telling the kids not to slam doors but they are kids and they don't listen to their parents.

It was about 7:40 and we needed to get to the hospital. We had two other kids and I felt that we didn't have time to put them into the car. The wife called my mother who lives about six miles away to come over. I called a neighbor because I thought we needed to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. Adrienne calmed down pretty quickly and was really brave. Fortunately the wife was more coolheaded than me and got some ice to put on Adrienne's finger.

My mother arrived before the neighbor did and I sent the neighbor home. We headed to the hospital and were seen by the triage nurse within about five minutes. Adrienne was not crying but she had been shivering some. She was very calm and cried a little bit when the triage nurse put the heart rate monitor on her uninjured finger.

So we went to an Emergency Department room and sat for about 30 minutes before we were seen by a young doctor who didn't have the best bedside manner. During the wait, Adrienne didn't cry and joked with us. I held her in my lap the entire time.

The doctor looked at it and told us that she would definitely loose her finger nail that might or might not grow back. We needed a x-ray to see if there was a fracture. Another ten minutes passed by and we wen to the x-ray department and Adrienne sat on my lap and did a great job of holding her hand in position for the x-rays. She still was not crying.

The x-ray showed that the tip of her had been fractured. The doctor called it a tuft fracture. He ended up putting four stitches in the finger to put the tip back in place. Two of the stitches were in the nail bed. Adrienne really cried during the stitching. The doctor had to inject lidocaine several times- she really screamed the first time he put the stitch needle so he put more lidocaine in the finger and she really screamed.

She was crying that she wanted to go home and when the wife or I said something like "the doctor is making it better" she sobbed and said through her tears "I don't think so" That made us all laugh.

We felt so bad for Adrienne. It was a really tough and painful thing for a three year old to go through. We were very proud of her and she did such a wonderful job. The nurse said that usually they had to hold down children. Adrienne stayed in place and didn't try to move her hand. She also was very tired. After it was all over the nurse brought her a purple popsicle and Adrienne at it all.

We stopped by McDonalds and got her chicken nuggets and a sprite with a barbie toy. The doctor wrote her a prescription for antibiotics and pain medication so I ran to Walgreens in Hickory (since it is the only 24 hour pharmacy in the county) and got back home about midnight.

I am really concerend that the doctor did a good job. I don't think he irrigated the finger enough (but I am not a doctor) and I don't konw if he got the tip positioned correctly. I am eager for an orthopedic doctor to look at an x-ray of her hand.

It just kills me to see my children hurt. I guess the moral of the story is that we need to enforce the no-slamming door policy.

The calm after the storm

Last night went pretty well. Initially more hell was raised and more tears flowed from Adrienne who was not giving up anything. The wife ended up sleeping all night with Atticus so she didn't get much sleep.

The melt down really didn't arrive until this morning when Atticus did not eat and began screaming the words 'I want my blue binky" over and over and over and over and over without cessation for about twenty minutes. I had to wrestle his clothes and shoes on him dealing with as much resistance as he could put up. But as I alway tell him: "I WILL win so why are you fighting?"

They all calmed down once in the Expedition. School went fine and nap went well without issue. In fact he went to bed tonight wihtout any problem either and the wife is in our bed tonight. Lolo didn't even ask at all about her mouth plug. All is good.

Bye Bye Binkie

Atticus the 3 year old and Lolo the 5 year old both are addicted to pacifiers. Neither sleeps without one or rides in a vehicle without one. It was way past time for them to give up the habit. We all know the bad things about it such as guaranteed braces, etc.

I had not pushed the issue and the wife enjoyed the little peace the pacifier brought her throughout her day. However still sucking on a pacifier at five is a little too far! The wife and I came to an agreement that the binkies had to go.

The twins preschool teacher just had a baby. So we made a big deal of giving all the binkies to the new baby. I made a "Binky Box" where they were supposed to keep the pacifiers from one week prior up to today when they gave them away to the baby. Sometimes they put the pacifier in the box but most times they didn't.

We had binkies strewn all over the house from one end to the other and across all three floors. The wife did a good job of rounding them up and cutting a hole in the end to render then unusable.

Psychologically I think Lolo was more prepared than Atticus. She is old enough to know that no one else in her class uses one. She has slept over at a friends house without one and she camped out with her father witout one. Lolo shed some major tears at first for about three minutes before bedtime. But she accepted it and has fallen asleep without incident. In fact she and her sister sleep together and her sister (the one addicted to her blankie and thumb) was raising hell because she wanted to read another book and I said no because it was well past their bedtime. Lolo went to sleep and I have not heard from her since which was about three hours ago.

Atticus on the other hand is a little different. He played the big game fine. He normally does not go to sleep when you close the door. He likes to stay up to play for about an hour before he falls asleep. He did this tonight as well but when he got tired and wanted to go to sleep he exited his room and went to our room where mommy was sleeping. He got in bed with her and I think that is where they are now. Atticus sleepig with us in our bed is out of the ordinary- it only happens on rare occasions in fact almost never. I am not sure if he and the wife are still in our room or if the wife took him to his room and laid down in bed with him there.

Maybe just one more night of trauma without the binkies and then it will be all over.

Electricity Nazi

Something I do every day- I walk around the house and turn out all the lights that have been left on in empty rooms. There are always lights on! I am probably saving a shitload of money because I switched all the lights to compact fluorescent bulbs. My kids rarely turn off lights when they leave a room. My wife sometimes turns out lights when she leaves a room. They don't have to work to pay the electric bill so I guess they really don't give a shit. And it isn't just that. I beleive in being a good steward of this planet and if I see an opportunity to contribute a little less to the destruction of our environment, I am going to do so.

The wife calls me an Electricity Nazi.

Bitch session over.

Supercar Heaven

I had a good friend in middle and high school whose father built a pretty large company from a small one he took over from his father-in-law. My friend's father needless to say became pretty wealthy. He also was a car nut. Apparently he was good friends with the President of Porsche back in the day (late 1980's and early 1990's) so he was able to get his hands on a brand new Porsche 959. It took him several years to actually get the car imported into the USA because it was not street legal. From what I remember he had tried to get the modificaitons done to it to make it legal. I think he had all of those modifications completed when I took these pictures.

According to Wikipedia there were only 337 of these cars built.

My friend's father does not own either of these cars anymore. I had heard that he sold the 959 to Jerry Seinfeld but I don't know if this is fact or not. I do know that Jerry Seinfeld owns one.

I don't know about the Ferrari F40 here but he owned this car too. I was hanging out with my friend and we washed the cars for his dad. We had done this several times before with some of his other cars and he used to take us for rides as a reward for washing them. I distinctly remember him taking me for a ride in his supercar of the month at the time which was a red Ferrari Testarossa. We hit 160 mph on a four lane road and I about shit in my pants.

Unfortunately I never got to ride in either the 959 or the F40. I just was amazed standing there looking at the $1 million worth of vehicles!

Difference in Offspring

The twins are so different. Adrienne already can maintain momentum on the swing by herself. I can get her started and she can for the most part keep swinging back and forth. Her brother Atticus has no clue but seems to want to try to do it. It won't be long before he gets it too.

I am just wondering when it will get easier to get these kids to bed. Atticus still pitches a holy hell of a fit almost every night with the crying and screaming. This too shall pass.

Learning to Ride a Bike

I took the training wheels off Lolo's bike this weekend. She can balance a little bit but she isn't comfortable with me letting go of the bike. I always hold on to her seat to keep her from falling one way or the other. She freaks out if she thinks she is going to fall. Regardless it hasn't kept her from wanting to continue to try. It should take her several more attempts before she is riding on her own.

Bad boy today

I really fucked up today. I was supposed to pick Lolo up from kindergarten at 3:00 PM. I neglected to write the appointment in my calendar so my crackberry will buzz me that I have something to do. So I was immersed in work on a phone call and completely spaced it until the wife called me. When I answer the phone here is the conversation verbatim:

Me: Hello
The wife: I am so mad at you. You better leave RIGHT NOW and get your ass to Concordia to pick your daughter up. She has been crying.
Me: I'm leaving right now.

When I got there she was not crying (thank Zeus) and talking to a woman who turns out to be an old classmate of mine. Lolo was in good spirits and was happy. I apologize profusely to her but she said: Daddy, even though you forgot to pick me up I still love you.

Gee I wonder where she got that from?