Liam sees something special

I was having lunch with Liam at Panera just now. He turned the lady at the table next to us and told her "I saw a titty in the bushes."

She actually choked on her coffee, so he clarified by saying "I saw a titty tat in the bushes at my house." I smothered a laugh and told her he meant a cat.  She did not look amused.  She changed tables less than a minute later...

She probably won't report me to CPS.  (We left quickly anyway.)

Spin art

Jessica and I had a favorite place to go to when we were kids to make stuff, and I think it was called Splatters.  It was (in our minds) this magical place to make cool clothing.  You would pick a sweatshirt/t shirt/tote bag/etc and put it on a spinning table and then drip paint onto it to create cool designs.  Inevitably, the clothing looked like we made it and the fad lost its steam pretty quickly.  How I wish I could find a picture of one of our ugly creations.  Alas, no photographic evidence might not be a bad thing.  Anyhow, today you can buy little machines like this one to create the same art.   I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, so last night I introduced Laney to spin art, the modern mommy version.

Laney needed to make some thank you notes for the volunteers in her Moppets class at Mops, as well as some Mother's Day cards.  We dropped a card into my salad spinner, which I haven't used in years since I discovered salad in a bag :)  Laney dripped paint onto the cards and then we gave it a whirl.  Here are her creations:

She really wanted me to put Laney Bug instead of Laney on the back.  

  I have to say that I had forgotten how fun it is to do spin art, and was really immersed in some fun memories last night as Laney and I made modern spin art cards.  It was really neat to see her experiment with the paint and to think of new ways to decorate.  It was like a little science experiment every time we took the lid off the spinner to see what we had made.   Mommy bonus: this project is not very messy and pretty cheap.   I think this art project is bound to repeated again and again this summer.  

Castember is almost over!

Thankfully, the month of Castember is drawing to a close.  Liam had a rough go of it week one, but was rewarded with excellent news at his one week checkup.  We had an x-ray taken of his leg (through the cast) and it showed remarkable healing.  In fact, you couldn't even see where the fracture had been.  The doctor then gave us the greatest news of all:  the cast comes off a week early!  That means, as of tomorrow, the cast will be gone!!!! Yippppeeee!!!  The last 3 weeks have been a trial for us, and a test of wills as well.  Liam has come through all of this remarkably, complaining very little about the cast or any itching.  He has had his fair share of muscle cramping and pinches from the cast itself though.  He started walking around on the cast after 2 weeks and by the end of last weekend was going up and down the stairs with remarkable speed.  We also began taking him to the park after his x-ray showed good progress.  There is a small park nearby that Liam could navigate really well in.  We just slipped one of Patrick's big socks over the cast so he didn't get any debris inside, and off he went.   I even had to ask him to stop climbing up the side of the jungle gym the last time we went.  I am just not ready to explain any more injuries to the doctor right now...

This cast has seen better days!  It is cracked in  the back by the heel too.

Here is Liam's famous "monster walk" perfected by hobbling around on his cast.

Castember update

Day 1 of Castember, which is what I have renamed this torturous 4 weeks of cast-hell, did not go so well.  There were (rightfully so) lots of tears from Liam and a lot of screaming too.  I don't know why the docs don't prescribe something stronger than Motrin for kids, but it sure would have been handy.  Liam got about 2 solid hours of sleep before waking up screaming.  We put him in our bed, gave him a dose of medicine, and then settled in for another hour of screaming.  He spent the night sleeping in 1 hour bursts, then crying for about an hour.  We think we logged a total of 5 non-consecutive hours of sleep that night.  Saturday morning was difficult too as we navigated the ins-and-outs of a non-walking Liam.  He was frustrated and angry that he had to be carried everywhere, and uncomfortable as he got used to the cast.  We were frustrated too at having to revert to having a child that needed so much hands-on entertaining again.  He did end up sleeping better last night, after we discovered that sliding a pillow under his cast while he is in bed helps to prop the leg into a comfortable position.

Day 3 turned out to be much better than expected.  We all woke up at 7am (which is sleeping in our house on a good day) and were elated that we actually got some decent blocks of sleep in.  I do have to admit that at 2am Liam woke up in pain.  We gave him some Motrin and put him back in bed between us.  Liam snuggled right up to me, forehead to forehead, and asked me to sing "Country Girl" by Luke Bryan to him.  While we ordinarily rock out to this song in the car, I did my best to turn it into a lullaby.  Not so easy when the first part goes like this:

"Got a little boom in my big truck/gonna open up the doors and turn it up/gonna stomp my boots in the Georgia mud/Gonna watch you make me fall in love/Get up on the hood of my daddy's tractor/Up on the toolbox, it don't matter/Down on the tailgate/Girl I can't wait/To watch you do your thang/Shake it for the rednecks rocking/Shake it for the young bucks sitting in the honky-tonks/For the rednecks rocking 'til the break of dawn/The DJ spinning that country song/Come on, come on, come on/Shake it for the birds, shake it for the bees/Shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek/For the crickets and the critters, and the squirrel/Shake it to the moon, shake it for me girl/Aw, country girl, shake it for me/Girl, shake it for me, girl, shake it for me/Country girl, shake it for me/Girl, shake it for me, girl, shake it for me"

Bless his heart, my little dude actually fell asleep as I sang this to him, and managed to stay asleep more or less until 7.  As I was changing his diaper this morning on the floor, he moved his casted leg and said to me, "I can move it!"  I think he had been afraid to move that leg up until then, and this was a breakthrough for him.  He started flailing his cast around as he realized that although he couldn't walk on the cast, his movement wasn't completely limited.  This was a great realization for us too.  In fact, this afternoon he surprised me again as I had left him and Laney playing blocks in his room, and here he came scooching backwards out of the room on his tushy.  Laney showed him how to scooch around the house and he got really fast at it.  She even taught him how to crawl up the stairs and then scooch back down on his tush.  She really has been such a bright light for him the last 2 days, cheering him up more than Patrick and I ever could.  She has been drawing him very detailed get well pictures, hugging him, and volunteering to get things for him without even being asked.  Sister of the year!

I was so pleased to see my children interacting in this way, and Castember doesn't look as ominous as it did yesterday.  I hope this rose-colored view of the next 4 weeks is here to stay.

Liam and his Purple Cast

This trout face says it all

Another parenting first for me:  a child with a cast.  Liam let himself out of Shesh's house Friday just before lunchtime and managed to fall on the garden path and break his leg.  I heard screaming from down below the patio and couldn't believe there was no blood or scrapes when I reached him.  I was also thankful that it wasn't a snake bite because the baby rattler's are out right now!

This is where it hurts...

Anyhow, I piled him into the car, texted our play date friends that we would not be meeting up with them for lunch, and speed dialed Dr. Schmottlach's office.  Poor Liam cried and cried  on the way there, making it pretty clear to the receptionist that we needed to be seen right away (Thanks Bluetooth )  The doctor examined Liam and told us that he was pretty sure he had broken the leg, and sent us over to another medical building for x-rays.  After a 30 minute wait, Liam and I went back to the x-ray room.  I am so glad that I had the foresight to jam a few lollipops into my purse while we were in the pediatiricans waiting room.  I was also thankful that my phone had a full battery charge and was loaded with games to keep my little dude busy.  Liam was being pretty brave about the whole thing, until they pulled the x-ray machine over him to take a picture.  That really freaked him out, but he held it together for the 2 pictures.  

We headed back to the pediatrician's office, and Dr. Schmottlach told us that he had an oblique tibia fracture (aka Toddler Fracture).  Dr. S explained that his bones are soft and when he twisted his ankle falling, it snapped the bone.  An adult would have just sprained the ankle, but kids usually break bones instead.  He sent us to another local medical building to get it casted.

When the technicians came in at the ortho office, they held out a pile of fiberglass swatches in bright colors for Liam to pick from.  Liam had been very adamant at Dr. Schmottlach's that he wanted a purple cast.  He picked the purple right away at  the ortho too.  Patrick had given me the go ahead to get him a purple cast, so we got him ready for the casting.  2 talented technicians came in and had Liam all wrapped up and casted in under 5 minutes.  Liam was brave for the whole thing, and convinced him not to cry by having him tell the techs about Disneyland (his favorite subject these days!)  He had to get a long-leg cast which extends from his toes to his upper thigh, bent 40 degrees at the knee so it won't slip off.   He will have to wear the cast for 4 weeks.  Until then, he can't walk or put any weight on it!

Not exactly thrilled about this, but Lovey helped him get through it. 

So upset to have a cast on.  Not happy at all that he can't walk.  

So, what does one do to entertain a 2.5 year old who can't walk, go to the park, play in the sand, stand at a Thomas the Train table, take a bath, go swimming, or even ride a scooter?  Guess we will soon find out!

The kids find a new show to like

Two nights ago a very strange thing happened.  L&L discovered a TV show they were mesmerized by:  the Lawrence Welk Show.  I am not even entirely sure how that show came to be broadcast into our living room.  I only know that I had 2 wild hooligans running around with soccer balls one minute and 2 statues staring open-mouthed at the screen the next.  They both were entranced as the orange-frocked ladies crooned a love song for the camera as pairs of happy octogenarians swished about the dance floor.  Then L&L began to dance.  Laney does a little side-to-side move and Liam looks more like he is marching, but they were dancing to Lawrence Welk!  On purpose!  Patrick and I took this all in from the kitchen, and the more they danced, the more we laughed because this stuff wasn't even cool when we were kids.

I had just put dinner on the table, and usually we turn the TV off for family dinner, but tonight I made an exception.  The LWS is hardly even TV, it's more of a bizarre time-capsule-esque music video.  Each time a song came on Liam would tell us it was "really pretty."  Laney thought the music was "fun" and begged us to let her keep watching.  So we did.  We had family dinner with a Lawrence Welk soundtrack.  Not as bad as I thought it would be.  Thanks for a memorable dinner L.W.!

Liam vs. Mommy

As part of Liam's continued campaign  to remain the second and last in our family, this morning's daily tantrum resulted in 10 minutes of laying prostrate on my bathroom floor screaming to the heavens.  The reason? I told him that blush was only for girls and that I wasn't going to let him wear any today. 

Sigh.

When will this reign of terror end?