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Breaking News: Literally, This Time

July 10, 2015 by Carrie Anne 14 Comments

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As many of you already know from my liberal use of social media, Elias fell on Wednesday and broke his elbow. He’s a natural born climber, something I never had to contend with for Isobel, and quick–so quick that in a hot second he somehow managed to climb into his high chair and sit down all by himself the other day, giving me a mini-heart attack. He’s fast, sure-footed, and confident, and our kitchen has been in a constant state of disarray as we’ve had to push all the chairs away from the table as on more than one occasion we’ve turn around to find him standing on the kitchen table and shakin’ his rump like a go-go dancer. If he’s not dancing he’s climbing, if he’s not climbing he’s dancing.

All of this dance-climbing was eventually going to get him into trouble, and on Wednesday, while I was making some lentil soup, I briefly turned my back and Elias made a beeline for the step stool. I didn’t see him do this, nor did I see the fall, but I heard the sickening smack and saw his poor little body on the ground. His elbow must have suffered the brunt of the fall, and when it broke, so did my heart.


His arm looked normal but he cried a lot and he’s just not a crier. Sure, he’ll wail bloody murder if he doesn’t get his way, but he is miserly with his injury tears. He wasn’t reaching for me with his left arm and I wasn’t sure it was anything was wrong but I took him to our Urgent Care anyway, just in case. They sent us off for X-rays and they confirmed a break and what looked like a dislocation of the elbow.

I went back to Urgent Care to get a report so I could go the Emergency Room. I knew what was coming, though. Last week my little nephew, Kai, broke his femur when something fell on his leg. Anthony’s mom and sister were transferred from a local ER to the Children’s Hospital in Madera. Locally we just aren’t equipped to handle these kinds of injuries on children.

We were transferred by ambulance from Turlock’s ER to Madera Children’s Hospital’s ER. It was an hour and a half trip south, through what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. I rode in the ambulance with Elias, and Anthony followed in the car after running home to turn off the stove (in my haste I had left the lentil soup still cooking on the stove), grab my meds and our phone chargers. We knew it would probably be an overnight stay.

Once we arrived the wait was getting extremely difficult for all of us. Elias had nothing but some OTC Tylenol and Motrin and I was becoming increasingly anxious as his discomfort grew. After another round of X-rays, they finally started an IV and gave him morphine. Then all was right in his world. He fell at 1 pm and this was probably around 7 pm.

The ER doctor had great news for us: he was going to to into surgery immediately, as opposed to waiting until the the morning. The sooner he could be treated the sooner he would feel genuine relief from pain. I started crying when I heard the news.

We met the doctors who would be operating and they were incredibly nice. They told us this was the second most common break for kids, the first being the wrist. The hospital saw about three to five cases like this a night. In fact, our doctor said he just came from operating on the exact same break on a different patient an hour ago.

The surgery took about an hour and involved the doctor manipulating the broken bones back into place (the break and dislocation were one and the same) and then attaching four pins in the elbow that went through the skin into the joint. The arm and pins are then covered by foam to allow for swelling and then a cast.

It went off without a hitch and I finally got a chance to eat at about 10:30 pm. After Elias came out of recovery he didn’t want to let me go, so I laid on his hospital gurney with him on top of me and they wheeled both of us to our room. They had a crib waiting for him but we convinced them to switch it for a bed so he could lay next to me. We surrounded him with pillows and elevated his arm with baby blankets to discourage swelling. Our nurses were nothing short of amazing and took excellent care of all of us. I slept with Elias in the hospital bed while Anthony made do with the pull-out couch.

We left in such a hurry we didn’t have anything in the way of toiletries.  It had been over twenty four hours since I had brushed my hair or even had any thought about my appearance. When I looked the the mirror the next day I  saw a crazy person. A crazy person, who, I began to realize, smelled really, really bad.

Before we left we tried to tidy our room as best as we could but Anthony ended up jamming the sofa bed and I janked up the window shade. You’re welcome, Madera!

Elias was such a trooper throughout. Rarely crying or making a fuss, even though the pain must have been great. All the nurses fell in love with him.

We flew up the 99 to return home and were finally reunited with Isobel, who had been staying with Grandma.

She wrote a sign on her bedroom door that said “Free” to let Baby Elias know he was free to play with any of her toys that he wanted. No charge.

Now we’re home and he’s adjusting to the cast it makes him alternately angry, frustrated and sad. But then he’s back to his sunshine self. He’s extra clingy and trying to learn to walk again with a giant heavy arm cast messing up his balance. He resembles a fiddler crab.

We feel so grateful for the support and love we recieved from everyone, and of course the help we received from my in-laws who took Isobel in without a second thought, even though my sister-in-law is staying with them while my nephew recovers. My parents were also ready to drop everything and care for her if needed. Your comments of love and prayers were greatly appreciated and made me feel like Elias had a whole cheering section rooting for us. The days ahead should get slowly easier, and better for my little buddy.

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Filed Under: Breaking News Tagged With: arm, arm cast, Babies, Baby, baby arm cast, baby broken elbow, baby cast, Breaking News, broken arm, broken elbow, cast, Children, Domestic Life, Domesticity, Family, frugal, Health, Home Life, hospital, Illness, Kids, madera children's hospital, Motherhood, Parenthood, Parenting, Photography, Thrift, Thrifted, Thrifting, Thrifty, toddler

50 Thrifty Fun Things To Do: Isobel’s Dance Party Playlist

July 3, 2014 by Carrie Anne Leave a Comment

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Every day Isobel and I (and now Elias)  listen to music together, even if just for a little bit. No matter how busy we are I make sure there’s at least some music playing in the background. As a general rule, my goals as a parent include finding time for music, reading together, playing outside, and imaginative play every day. I noticed as I fired up my playlists each morning that Isobel would request specific songs, and eventually she drove me crazy as I skipped from song to song to song for her. So, I made her a special playlist and named it Isobel’s Dance Party playlist.

It is more of a hit than I possibly could have guessed. We hear it so much that from time to time it makes me insane and I swear if I hear Everything Is Awesome one more time I will spontaneously start bleeding from my ears. On occasion I have had to impose music-free afternoons because I just can’t listen to those songs without falling to my knees and weeping for it to stop. But then I’ll catch her holding her toy microphone up to her face and belting out the theme from Arrietty and I’m so happy my heart could burst.

I used to do the same thing as a kid. I listened to the radio religiously, sang along to the cassette tapes on my Walkman, and recorded my favorite songs off the radio to listen to on repeat later. I come from a musical family and as soon as I was old enough to play an instrument in band, I did. Music is still very important to me. It is so wonderful to see her enjoying it. We listen to a lot of Brazilian jazz and bossa nova and she really likes that, too. Each year we have a sing-a-long during our Christmas party and I remember Melynda sitting down at the piano and asking Isobel what song she’d like to hear, thinking she’d request Jingle Bells or Frosty the Snowman. She requested Running by Eliane Elias.

Isobel’s Dance Party Playlist

My Humps,  by the Black Eyed Peas – She really likes this song. Like, a lot. It’s embarrassing for me to admit that she thinks this song is called “spending money on me,” and loves to sing “My lumpy lumpy lumps.” I’m sorry, Isobel. Your mother’s bad taste has rubbed off on you.

Fuse, by Hudson Mohawk – this song is from the Sleeping Dogs soundtrack and I just really liked it, so one day I downloaded it. There’s an ooh ahh chorus in the background that’s slightly distorted and when Isobel was younger she thought they were singing koala. I don’t know. She still calls it the koala song and that’s what it goes by in my house.

Thrift Shop, by Macklemore. She used to call this “the spooky song.” I have no idea. Her favorite part is to say “Hey Macklemore, can we go thrift shopping,” and then she’ll turn to me and say, “Can we, Mama?”

Gangnam Style, by Psy. Isobel and Kingston were obsessed with this song for the longest time. You should see her sideways pony dance.

Can’t Hold Us, by Macklemore. She calls this the “Hey hey!” song because he says that in the beginning. She loves this song.

Everything Is Awesome, by Tegan and Sara. The Lego Movie was the first movie that Isobel sat all the way through at the theater and this song makes her go insane with joy. She also loves to dance to this song with Kingston.

Nicotine and Gravy, by Beck. Anthony and I love this song, and we went through a phase where we listened to this song every time we got into the car. One day we realized Isobel was singing along.

Summertime, by Bridget Mendler. This song is from the movie The Secret World of Arrietty, one of Isobel’s favorite movies. I’m not really about Disney starlets, but I love this song.

 

To cope with the maddening repetition I sometimes set a timer and let her listen to the playlist a few times through before we take a break for other music. I’m in the midst of creating a few other playlists for her that feature rock songs, heavy percussion for her love of drumming and music to chill out to.

Sometimes she will request her playlist to listen to in the background while we do chores or make crafts, but sometimes she’ll get her instruments out and play along. She likes to learn the words and sing along, which is exactly what I loved to do as a kid. Sometimes we have living room dance parties. What she really loves is to turn it on and run from one end of the room to the other, ricocheting off furniture and jumping off of furniture. I love it when she does that because not only is it cute, but it helps her burn off some midday energy when it might be too hot to go outside.

Even though there are times when listing to the same songs over and over makes me crazy, I’m still really glad I made this playlist. She loves having “her own” music on a special playlist, and watching her love music more than makes up for occasional ear bleeding.

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Filed Under: 50 Thrifty Fun Things To Do, Mixtape Tagged With: 50 Thrifty, 50 Thrifty Fun Things To Do, Activities, Activity, Babies, child, Children, Dance, Dancing, frugal, Fun, Kids, List, Music, Play, play list, playlist, Preschool, Summer, Thrifty, toddler

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