I feel like there are all these odds and ends going on that I should blog about, but my brain can't catch up. Lots of things are happening. A lot is on my mind, but between chasing sleep deprivation, my decaffeination continuing, and J.C. out of town, I don't think a coherent blog post is going to happen any time soon. Thus, the midweek brain dump.
She now has that freaky little gold chain coming out from her gums to pull her tooth down in the right direction. It sounded barbaric and painful, but she weathered the surgery much better than anticipated. She can't eat much yet, but otherwise, she is fine. I'm still recovering.
Ever have one of those days where nothing goes quite as planned? Halloween was that day for us this week.
Elise decided to dress as a heroine from young adult literature for the second year in a row. Last year, she was Katniss from the Hunger Games. This year, she was a Shadow Hunter from City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments series). Our Shadow Hunter had made plans to trick-or-treat in a friend's neighborhood and was all excited about that prospect; however, on Tuesday, she twisted her ankle at school. Her ankle was still bothering her a lot, so she decided she was better off staying close to home where she could easily head home at any point to rest her ankle.
Our teenage vampire had also made plans with friends that fell through. She and a friend had solidified trick or treating plans at school without talking to the other girl's mother. It turns out their family had plans with family friends, so Nina was stuck trick-or-treating with her sister instead. She was less than thrilled about that.
Our poor littlest cowgirl spent the day throwing up and lying on the floor of the bathroom. As she so aptly put it, "This is not my best day ever."
J.C. spent the day cleaning vomit off of our family room carpet and leather couch... definitely not his best day ever either.
I had plans to leave work early, pick up a jack-o-lantern pizza to bake from Papa Murphy's, and help the girls get ready. Instead, a customer issue cropped up late in the afternoon that required an "all hands on deck" approach at work. There was no way I was going to leave early, or even on time, for that matter.
J.C. left poor little Addie in the hands of her big sisters to go pick up the pizza. Usually Papa Murphy's fashions a stem out of pizza dough, so it looks more pumpkin like. This guy is just more of a smiley pizza than a real jack-o-lantern. At least it tasted good.
After dinner, the big girls took off with reminders to say thank you at each house and to cross the streets very carefully as they were pretty much invisible in all black.
At some point, the little cowgirl rallied and decided she could venture out. She couldn't stand the thought of missing out completely. I took her to about 5 houses, and then we came home. I was glad she felt up to at least a little trick-or-treating. She had been so excited about being a cowgirl.
Her sisters showed up hours later with plenty of loot to share. We certainly have no shortage of candy despite Addie's very abbreviated trip out.
This year definitely didn't rank up there with the best Halloweens ever, but we muddled through it. I hope your Halloween was full of shadow hunters, ghosts, vampires, princesses, healthy cowgirls, haunted houses, jack-o-lantern pizzas, and plenty of candy!
I so often see families out riding bikes together, the kids in their helmets that are required by law here, and the parents cruising along helmetless. I don't understand that. Why are your children's brains more valuable than your own? Asphalt and cement can crack any skull, not just those of children. Who will take care of your children if you crash without a helmet? Wear a helmet. This is the helmet that is allowing my husband to be here at home doped up on pain meds rather than lying in an ICU or morgue somewhere. Wear a helmet.
Our shitastical day started yesterday just before noon. My friend was walking down the hall toward my office, so we could go have lunch. My phone rang. I answered it and heard something along the lines of this, "Ann, this is Jon. J.C. and I were out riding, and he lost control of his bike. He was unconscious for a while, but he is awake now. The ambulance is here. He doesn't know where he is or what happened, and I think he may have shattered his cheekbone, and wah wah wah wah wah wah." His voice turned into the Charlie Brown teacher. I don't even know what else he said to me. I yelled, "WHERE ARE YOU?" I half heard the directions and ran out of my office. I ran through the lobby of my building and out the door. I knew my car was parked a million miles away, and time felt so critical. I saw a car pull up, likely someone picking up a friend from my building for lunch. As the guy waiting opened the door to get in, I ran over and said, "Can you give me a ride to my car? My husband was in an accident, and I need to get to my car." I don't think I gave them a chance to answer before I jumped in the back seat and gave them directions to where I was parked. And no, I have no idea who these men were who I just carjacked. I got to my car, thanked the kind strangers, raced off campus, and then couldn't remember if he had said "turn left, then right" or "right, then left". I opted for left and then noticed another of his biking buddies at the intersection that would have been "right, then left". He was stationed there waiting for me. It felt like an eternity to make a U-turn. I got to him and just pointed ahead like, "That's where I'm supposed to go?" He somberly nodded yes. I drove along the unfamiliar road, wondering if I was supposed to turn off somewhere, hoping I would find them. When I came upon two fire trucks and ambulance at the scene, it wasn't hard to know I had found them.
As I got out of my car, one EMT and Jon walked toward me to intercept me before I got to the ambulance. They warned me that there was a lot of blood but that the EMT's were cleaning him up. They told me he was talking and joking but was still disoriented and asking the same questions over and over. His face was a bloody mess (literally a bloody mess... not using "bloody" like Brit slang), but he said, "Hi Hon... so I guess this is really happening, huh?" His biking buddies said they would drive my car to the hospital, so I could ride in the ambulance with him. I was thankful to not have to drive any more. My legs were pretty shakey.
The ER visit was a blur of wondering whether he had broken his cheekbone, eye socket, and/or jaw, his neck in a neck brace, waiting for pain meds and the results of CT scans of the head and neck, lots of spitting blood out of his mouth, x-rays of the face, shoulder, and elbow, stitches in the arm and eye lid, and a whole lot of time spent getting wounds cleaned. I sat there nauseous and shell-shocked. It was hard to look at him. Actually, it still is.
When he went for x-rays, I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch. I was hoping food would help settle my stomach. Also, I knew I needed to call his parents, so I had to catch my breath to get my head wrapped around that. I ate some pizza and then made the phone call. I had gotten his dad's cell phone number because I knew I would have an easier time talking to his dad than his mom. I'm a mom. I knew I couldn't talk to the mom. In my head, the phone call was going to go something like this, "Hi John. J.C. is OK, but he had a bike accident, and we're at the hospital. He has a concussion, but he is awake and alert and talking. He landed on his face, but they are cleaning it up now." There was no way to give the news without worrying them, but my goal was to minimize the worry. Instead, the phone call went something like this, "John... <sniff, sniff>, It's... uh... J.C.... <sob, sob> we're in the ER. It's his face. He has a concussion. It was a bike wreck. <choke, choke, sob, sob>." So much for not making them worry. He got the general gist which was, "Get here now" and asked which hospital. I hung up and realized I should warn them about his face. I called back and said, "Please warn his mom that his face looks really awful. She needs to know that before she sees him." Then, I hung up and realized that I was pretty sure I never even told them he was conscious. I texted them this, "Sorry so choked up on the phone. He is awake and talking. Was disoriented at first but seems on track now. He is going to be totally fine... Just quite injured but no major head injury or anything like that."
I really should not be the communicator during traumatic times. My hands were trembling so much when we first got there that I could hardly type on my phone. My email to my boss and JC's boss to tell them we would be out the rest of the afternoon was this: "At hospital w jc. Bad bike wreck. Concussion... Face mangled." Nice. I'm sure they loved receiving that one. The one to my mom was no better. It had the subject line "Please get kids" with this text, "Nina bus. Addie any time. At hospital with jc. Bad bike wreck concussion maybe shattered cheek bone. Maybe jaw issues. Can't talk now."
Be glad if you aren't on the receiving end of my emails during a crisis.
He was discharged around 3:30 with stitches, lots of gauze and tegaderm all over his right side, and instructions about concussions, but no broken bones. He has all his teeth as well. After dropping off prescriptions, we were able to get home in time to meet Nina at the bus stop. We knew Nina was going to be the one to have the hardest time with the news, and she was the one I had to tell first. She was a wreck. She has been crying anytime someone mentions him or something reminds her of him. It is tough. She is a sensitive soul. Then she and I went to pick up Addie and told her the news. The girls didn't want to see him, but I felt like they needed to. They needed to know he was basically OK. He held a towel up over the right side of his face to talk to them. They both burst into tears again. Addie said she never wanted to look at him again.
Yesterday was truly awful. Neither of us slept much last night, but today has been better. The pain meds are managing his pain well, so he is up and moving around. Nina and Elise are both having fun on Girl Scout trips, so they haven't had to see how much additional swelling he has today.
Addison has been bombarding me with questions... "Where is the shirt that the ambulance people cut off of him?", "Was daddy having fun when he was flying through the air but then not fun when he landed on his face?", "Why did daddy sit up in the ambulance? When you are in an ambulance, you are supposed to lie down." She has that awesome curiosity that only 3-5 year olds have. Sadly, any time she asked one of these questions, Nina would start crying again.
Although JC has no memory of the accident, we have pieced together what happened. He was coming fast down a hill on a neighborhood street. He planned to bunny hop the curb at the end of the street to get on the greenway. He pulled the bike up too soon though, and his back wheel hit the curb hard and fast. The back wheel bounced off the curb and sent him flying through the air. He landed on the greenway face first and slid along the asphalt about 20 feet. He was unconscious when his friend got to him and bleeding profusely. Jon immediately called 911 but didn't know what street they were on. He ran to a house and banged on the door to find out the name of the street. While he was there, JC woke up, started moaning, and sat up. By the time I got there, he was already in the ambulance, so I didn't see the pool of blood on the greenway. Apparently after we left, the fire men used their hazmat equipment to clean it up.
I really have not recovered yet. I'm not sure when I will. I still feel traumatized by the whole thing. JC seems to be handling the emotional side of this better than I am, and the pain meds are effective in managing his pain. He is doing OK. I am not. I'll get there, but this really shook me to the core.
I have not shared any photos in the post because if you are squeamish or sensitive, you may not want to see them. I have a hard time looking at them, but I'm his wife. I will post some after the jump though for those who would like to see them.
Final words... wear a helmet. Period. Always. On anything with wheels.
Click continue only if you would like to see photos.
Day 5 was a very, very bad day for half of our family. It started out well enough. We decided this day was going to be our one sleep-in day. We weren't in a rush, so we went for a leisurely breakfast at the resort. Nina was complaining of her tummy hurting, but we assumed she was just hungry. We thought breakfast would solve her problem. We all enjoyed our breakfast except for Nina who mostly picked at hers and laid down in the booth.
By the end of breakfast, she was starting to look worse, not better. Our plan had been to spend the morning swimming, but Nina opted for a nap. Anytime your child chooses a nap over swimming at a fun resort pool, you know things are bad. Elise, Addie, and J.C. headed off to the pool. Nina was sound asleep the minute her head hit the pillow.
She slept like a rock for a couple of hours. JC and the girls planned on staying at the pool until she woke up so as not to bother her. She began to stir, so I texted JC that she was waking up. As they started the (long) walk back from the pool, Nina leaped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to throw up. If there was any doubt about her being sick, there were no longer any doubts. J.C. agreed to stay in the room with her while the rest of us grabbed lunch at the resort and headed off to Magic Kingdom. While we felt bad having to leave them there, we were a also bit relieved to get away from Nina's germs.
Note to self: If your child plans to take a picture holding Tinker Bell, make sure she is not wearing a busy shirt with lots of colors on it. Tink disappears in the shirt.
Our first order of business was fastpasses for Dumbo. Besides meeting Jake, Addie's other big goal for this trip was riding Dumbo. The poor child had asked every morning, "Is today the day we get to ride Dumbo?" and got a no response four mornings in a row. We walked directly to the new Fantasy Land and picked up fastpasses for Dumbo and Barnstormer. The machine shot out a free fastpass for Mickey's Philharmagic as well. I didn't like that show last time I saw it, so I didn't intend to use that one. I stuffed it in my pocket anyway. Much to my dismay, Addie wanted to ride the teacups too. She is too young to ride them with just Elise, so I was stuck riding that awful ride. The two of them loved it.
Me? Not so much.
Then it was finally time for the big moment... Dumbo! I'm not sure if this really lived up to Addie's expectations, but she still claims it was her favorite part of the trip. Personally, I think she had much more fun on Test Track and Soarin'.
Next was Barnstormer. Addie liked it. Elise thought it was a bit of a snooze. I think she has finally graduated from the kiddie rides.
After that, we picked up fastpasses for Peter Pan. We needed to kill a little time before our fastpass return time. Since we had the freebie fastpasses for Mickey's Philharmagic, we just went to that. I should have stuck with my gut and skipped it. I really don't like that show. Oh well, live and learn. Peter Pan was, of course, excellent, so we finished our time in Fantasy Land on a high note.
Next, we hopped on the train to Frontier Land. I had seen in the character guide that Jessie was going to be doing a meet and greet soon. She was the character I was most excited to see, so getting to Jessie was our next mission. Her meeting spot is a little hidden. It is by the Splash Mountain queue, but Splash Mountain is undergoing renovations, so there really isn't any traffic over there. That worked to our advantage. Since she wasn't out there yet, there were only a few people in line in front of us.
Woody was a bonus! We didn't know he would be there too.
After our photo op with Jessie, Addison actually gave her a hug. I was so excited she was finally getting comfortable with the characters and even more excited it was with Jessie. Sadly, I didn't pull my camera out quickly enough to snap a picture. It was very sweet though... you'll just have to trust me on that one.
Throughout the day, J.C. had been texting me updates about Nina. The were texts like, "Threw up again", "I'm worried about Nina. Her eyes just rolled back in her head, and she passed out on the bathroom floor.", "Doing a little better. She's watching TV.", and then, "Watched TV for 15 minutes then fell asleep again." Clearly, Nina was having a really horrible day. Considering JC hadn't left the room the entire day, I'm sure his day wasn't much better. I tried to convince him to switch places with me to go to dinner with Addison and Elise, but he refused saying he wanted to let me enjoy the trip. What a great guy!
Next, we walked to Adventure Land in hopes of riding a couple things there. Most had waits that were too long and fastpasses that were too far out, so we treated ourselves to some Mickey ice cream bars and rode The Magic Carpets of Aladdin.
Then we did a little shopping and hopped on the monorail to the Polynesian for dinner at 'Ohana. I was so sad that J.C. and Nina couldn't join us. 'Ohana is our family's favorite restaurant in Disney World. As usual, everything was delicious!
Customer service was fantastic too. Remember how Le Cellier wouldn't even switch out a potato side with J.C.'s steak? 'Ohana has a mixed veggie dish which contains baby corn among other things. Addie had eaten all of the baby corn out of the dish that was served family style at our table. She asked the waiter if she could have more baby corn. He brought some out in a little bowl for her. She ate all of those and asked for more. He said,"I'll see if I can get out a few more. I have to dig through the mixed veggies to find them!" So... keeping score... Le Cellier - can't even throw a potato on a plate... 'Ohana - will painstakingly sort through mixed veggies to pull out just the baby corn.
A+ to 'Ohana... love that place!
After dinner, we hopped the monorail back to Magic Kingdom for Wishes. That is such a great show, and we had a really good viewing spot right in the middle of Main Street.
J.C. doesn't care much about fireworks, but we were all feeling sad that Nina couldn't be there with us to enjoy it.
As we were leaving the park, we decided to buy one of the little spinning glow toys that they sell during the fireworks shows for Nina. If she couldn't be there with us, we figured we would bring a tiny bit of the show to her.
It was a late night, and Addie crashed on the bus ride back.
We got back to the room to find Nina looking slightly more human than she had that morning. She had spent the day in one of the queen sized beds, so in order to cut down on germ transfer, we moved her to the murphy bed. We called mousekeeping to bring clean sheets for the queen bed and then put Addie and Elise in there. We went to sleep hoping for a better tomorrow.
Day 5 Favorites:
Addison: Dumbo, Teacups, Barnstormer, parade (I forgot to mention that in the post, but I guess we watched the parade at some point too), baby corn, fireworks, castle changing colors, chicken legs (an appetizer at 'Ohana), and the monorail. (She listed those off in exactly that order!)
Nina: the spinny light-up toy
Elise: fireworks and 'Ohana
Ann: fireworks and 'Ohana
J.C.: catching Addie at the bottom of the slide at the pool - watching her so proud of herself, squealing and laughing
How poor sick Nina spent her day.
Miserable (mis-er-a-ble, adjective): Eleven year old girl with a broken ankle and an orthodontic appliance that looks more like a medieval torture device.
crutches
swelling and bruising in a sickly shade of green
and what can only be described as 50 Shades of Orthodontia.
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