Daniel must LOVE the doctor!

After doing so well with his surgery in January, Daniel barely made it into February before his next medical adventure.

I got a call from school in the mid-afternoon.  Normally, the ladies who call start every conversation with, "This is so-and-so from such-and-such school.  THE CHILDREN ARE FINE.  I'm just calling to…"  But this time, there was no disclaimer.  They said that Daniel had fallen down while lining up after play time and bumped his head.  He didn't seem to be in any pain, but he wasn't really moving his right arm very much.

The day was almost over, so I thanked them and said I'd check it out when he got home.  I told Joe, and when we all met up at home, he confirmed that Daniel hadn't complained of anything, but we looked and his arm did seem a little swollen around the elbow and he wasn't moving it beyond shrugging his shoulder.  I called the advice nurse who said that if "they aren't moving the arm, we generally want to check it out." So we got an appointment and ran over.  The pediatrician sent us for x-rays, but the machine in the pediatrics building was broken, so we had to walk over to the hospital to get them done. Everyone in the hospital has to wear masks during cold & flu season, so we played along.

We also got stickers at each desk we stopped by.  We went to the big X-ray room and I held Daniel while they twisted his fore-arm in different directions to get views of all sides of his arm and wrist.  Then we trod back to the pediatrics building where we were told that the arm was broken, but that it was a tiny fracture up at the top of the ulna (by the elbow) that should heal perfectly.  An appointment was made to see the orthopedist the next day and we were sent home with a sling that Daniel HATED.

The next day they showed us the x-ray with the fracture.  Daniel was excited to see his arm on TV!  Then it was time to put a cast on.  They'd promised us a "soft cast", but the technician worried about someone Daniel's age being able to keep it dry and safe, so he did a fiberglass cast instead.  

Daddy and Daniel see his arm on TV!

The arrow is pointing to the fracture

The first step is to put  a sock on his arm to protect his skin.

And roll that sock all the way up his arm

Making sure there's room for the fingers to wiggle!

Now wrapping it up in sturdy cotton

And covering that with the fiberglass layer

And finally, waiting for that to dry and harden

Daniel was NOT enjoying this part

We left the hospital and went to Boppy's office to visit and get some cool decorations added to the cast.    He fell asleep in the car, so I let him rest in there with Daddy while I wandered down to one of the Fisherman's Wharf souvenir shops and bought some short-sleeved tshirts - his long sleeves weren't going to fit over the cast and his short sleeved shirts might be too tight to stretch over, so we got an assortment of larger tshirts for him.

When it came time to draw, Daniel asked for Captain America's shield.  He also took some stabs at drawing on the cast himself.

He wore the cast for a total of three weeks, with visits back to check his progress twice and replace the cast once.  He was miserable when they took the cast off - they had to use the saw since it was a hard cast - and then we had to go over to get another x-ray done.  The little old man running the X-ray said gruffly, OK, Dad and kid come on in.  Daniel was clinging to me, so I said I'd go, and the man was annoyed.  Apparently, he didn't think a woman's place was in the diagnostic imaging suite!  Daniel was scared and crying, and the man chided him for crying and being a baby.  It annoyed me, but the nurses and doctors on the orthopedics side were so nice, I quickly forgot about it.

He then had to get a new cast put on, which meant Boppy had to come by and give him new decorations - this time a Bat Signal to go with his Captain America shield.

When it finally came time to take the cast off, we just happened to end up with back-to-back appointments with Grandma, so the "pretty doctor" (as Daniel knew her) got to see whole generations of the family.  Daniel squirmed a lot when they pulled out the saw to remove the cast and I wasn't able to hold him as firmly as I should have, so his skin got "burned" a bit into a little scrape where the cast came off.  It gave him a decent scar to show off to his friends, though.

His arm has now completely healed, but he has developed a bizarre fear of going up and down our front stairs ever since the cast came off.  This we will have to break him of because I cannot carry him up and down if he gets much bigger!

The rest of Presidents' Weekend

On the Sunday of Presidents' Weekend, Uncle, Wendy, and I took the kids to the Academy of Sciences.  They were entranced by the fishies and jellies, but more than anything they were excited about the outdoor fair that was happening, with camping gear on display.  That meant they got to play in a real tent and get coloring books and stickers from companies and the National Parks.

Afterwards, we walked through the music concourse and explored the statues before heading home.

Then keeping with our tourist theme for the holiday weekend, we headed to the zoo on Presidents' Day.  It was a little chilly, so everyone wore their jackets.  It was also windy, and Caroline's hair was annoying her, so I bought her the only headband they had that would fit her tiny little head.  Fittingly, it was pink and featured fake fur and a crown.  What a princess.

Checking out the zebras

We saw the baby gorilla

One of our favorite things is to visit the little brass elephant statue by the old pachyderm house (there is no live elephant in residence at the zoo).  Today, though, Caroline was most interested in posing.

Daniel decided he didn't want to leave the hippo area, so he just squatted down to wait us out.

 On the way out, we bought a big bucket of cotton candy to share (or, as Sarah and Duck refer to it, "Candy Floss")

Sticky fingers!

 It was a busy day at the zoo and the kids were busy, busy, busy while they were there.  They zonked out almost instantly when we headed home.

When we got home, the kids really wanted sandwiches, but they didn't want to come inside, so we had a little sidewalk picnic.

Maybe next year I won't be so ambitious on the holiday weekend.  I was pretty exhausted too!

Valentines and Daddy's Birthday

This was the first year the kids really got into Valentine's Day.  They were invited to go to school on Friday (they normally attend M-Th) so they could take part in the Valentine exchange and "party".  This worked out well, since I had the day off for our 4-day "Presidents" weekend and could get a few things done with them out of the house.

We were told to bring 27 Valentine's and to sign them, but not make them out to individual students.  I made sure to get special outfits for everyone - Max got to be a "heart breaker", Daniel (who needed a short-sleeved shirt to fit over his cast) was a "knock out", but I really didn't like any of the Valentine's themed outfits for girls, so Caroline was delighted to get to wear a red Hello Kitty dress with a pink long-sleeved shirt underneath.

They each came home with a big bag of goodies from the exchange.  I had been sure to get Valentine's that came with stickers (from Daniel), or pencils (from Max), or even temporary tattoos (from Caroline), since the school is so strict about sweets in the kids' lunches, but sure enough their friends handed out lollipops and candies and cookies with their cards.  Oh well...

When they got home, we greeted them with our own Valentine's gifts - a little box of candies and a tshirt each - Daniel and Max got Toy Story shirts (Woody & Bullseye and Buzz Lightyear, respectively) and Caroline got a light blue Supergirl sweatshirt with the S, she noticed, in "sparkle pink".  In fact, she liked it so much that she insisted on putting it on right away!

Here they are digging into their loot:

And sending a message to Auntie in Chicago:

The kids then decided to empty the entire fruit bowl to make me a Valentine on the floor.  I'm not entirely sure what it was supposed to be - perhaps a windshield with its wiper up?

The holiday weekend continued on Saturday with Daddy's birthday.  The kids were super excited, since they knew that if it was someone's birthday, that meant they got to make cupcakes!  They also wanted to visit Grandma and Boppy, it turned out, so we brought all our cupcake making supplies to their house and commandeered the kitchen for our work.

They chose yellow cake, but wanted different colors of frosting, so I bought white frosting and tinted it with food coloring.  We also had a wide assortment of sprinkles for decorating.  

Daniel's getting a little help from Boppy

Caroline is helping herself (gotta make sure that frosting is tasty, right?)

Max surveying his masterpieces

Caroline may have sampled more than "a little" of the pink frosting!

The final product - tray one!

The final product - tray two!

Singing to Daddy!

And now singing to Daddy with SOUND!

Wendy snapped some pictures of what the kids were doing while we waited for the cupcakes to bake and cool.  Nothing cooler than a couple of empty boxes on Grandma and Boppy's porch, right?

And did I forget to mention that they also went for a stroll down to get frozen yogurt with Uncle?

Daniel's chocolate yogurt Van Dyke

Who would think Max could be the CLEAN one?