Painful, Painful Summer!

I was reading a friend's blog a while ago about a potentially serious accident with her son. It's after a post like that that you take inventory of your life and situation. Aside from Joshy's birthday finger slamming accident our household has been relatively accident free.

In a rather sickening twist of fate, it seems that our kids have been making up for lost time. Join me now for a look back over the summer at some of the accidents that my boys have had:

#1

We enjoy having family walks now and then. Sometimes the boys will take the big-wheels out with us, and sometimes we'll walk. We have a common routine of heading East through our neighborhood to an undeveloped block and then back home. This fateful evening, however, was different. We decided to head Westward. We crossed the 1000 West thoroughfare unscathed and let the kids loose to run ahead some.

For some reason the boys like to jump from the sidewalk to the sprinkler boxes placed on every houses lawn. 1/2 block into our walk was a house with two boxes on either side of the walkway. Josh jumped onto one, Ethan jumped onto the other. Of course, you can't just jump on one when there's a house with two! It was like watching a kid in a mirror. They turned at the same time, jumped onto the sidewalk at the same time and ran for the opposite side at the same time.

WHAM!!!

They collided with what didn't seem like that much force. Joshy was thrown back a step or two, but Ethan, in a laws-of-physics defying moment was thrown 90 degrees from his travelling path. If Newton himself was present his jaw would have dropped. Conservation of Momentum has no bearing with my boys. Ethan fell, first to his knees, then on his forehead (looking as if a devout muslim facing mecca), dragging his head for several inches. Below is the resultant scab.

I carried him home with him screaming and bleeding. Days later we revisited the scene. Where he hit we noticed that the sidewalk had a hole. We joked that his head broke the sidewalk. They got a good laugh.

#2
I was working... diligently. We were at Hill Air Force Base teaching our "Freedom From Headaches" class. I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. It was Challene. I pushed the "busy" button and went back to the class. A moment later it wrang again. "Hmmm," I thought and pressed busy again. Not moments later it rang again. "Ok," I thought, "that's the signal that an emergency is happening. I got up quietly and left the room to answer the phone.

"Hello?" I say.

*sniff* "Dad?" says a little trembling voice.

"Ethan? What's wrong?"

"Dad, I fell and I hurt my neck," he said, voice still trembling.

I tried to ask him more, but he was trying to give the phone to Challene. She explained the story.

Ethan and Josh have a game. They climb up our loveseat and onto the window sill. Then they jump (or slide depending on the cusion setup) down back onto the loveseat. We've asked them, and asked them, and asked them not to do this explaining the dangers that could happen.

This day, I guess Ethan had taken our advice to heart. Not wanting to get hurt, he decided to take measures to prevent injury. He took the cords from the blinds and wound it around his neck several times. Then he jumped.

The cords caught and as his weight pulled it slowly unwound from his neck. I'm sure it choked him a little, but the rope burns were the worst of it. Scared out of his mind he ran to Challene crying. It was sometime after that I got the call.

This was the day of the accident. Doesn't look too bad, does it? The burns start on the right side of his neck below the ear and go all the way around to the left side of the neck up behind the ear.

This was the day after when the burns started to scab over.

That same day, Ethan cut Joshy's finger with some scissors. Minor cut, but just one more thing on the pile.

Also that same day the boys were in back flying kites. Joshy crossed in front a Ethan's kite and got a much smaller rope burn on the left lateral side of his neck. Again, not as bad, but definately noticable.

If that wasn't enough to warrent a call from DCFS, then read on:

#3

Ethan and Josh were playing yesterday. We have a kitchen/dining/family greatroom that they run through, ride cars through, somersault through, you name it. I was preparing for a job interview at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital. We were all going to go so we could hit temple square afterwards. I had tied my tie and was wearing a nice, crisp, clean, white shirt. I was getting something ready when I heard a tumble, crash, cry from Josh. I saw him walking over to me, crying and just thought he bumped his head or something.

I picked him up trying to console him. He snuggled in, happy for the consolation. When he calmed down, I pulled him away to assess the damage. It was then that I noticed the blood on the shoulder and sleeve of my shirt. I looked at his chin only to notice a gaping wound.

"Challene," I said, "Joshy's gonna need stitches."

I was fully prepared to cancel the interview, but Challene said to go ahead and she'd take him in.


Kind of hard to see, but they glued his chin back together. No stitches. Every time I try to look at it he reminds me, "My doctor says, 'no picking at it' ok dad?" or when we try to put him in the bath, "My doctor says, 'no getting it wet' ok dad?" My Joshy's such a good boy.

I think that's about it... Oh, I beaned Challene on the knee with a softball. Then yesterday we went to the batting cages and she got beaned on the chest with another softball. She was helping Ethan bat when he tipped it right into her. Hence the "bat at your own risk" signs.

Throughout this, I've remained relatively unscathed (knock on wood).

Now, here's some fun shots of the kids. Our camera has been broken since Easter. We finally got it in and fixed (thank you extended warrantee! You all laughed at me when I bought it, but now who's laughing?)

This was waiting for it to get dark to do our one firework we bought. It was a "30 soldier parachuting firework". It was pretty dang cool. Ethan and Josh had a ball trying to find the parachutes after all was done.

Keeping these guys fully clothed is a task in and of itself. But who can resist two underpants clad, rain boot sportin', toy gun weildin', eye patch wearin' boys?

This was from Easter. Josh would open the eggs by squeezing the top causing the bottom to explode away!