For Vanessa

"See mine owie?"

Well...

Brett and I can never get Tino to look at the camera. Here is a picture Nix took of him. Cute little turd. He bashed his teeth in last Saturday, and a friend of ours snapped them back into place. Apparently the best way to break your front teeth is toward the back of your mouth, the nerves are less likely to sever. And if you do bash your teeth in you want to put them back into place within the hour or they will have to be re-dislocated in order to be put back into place. I'm a nervous reck about his teeth now. Well, according to this picture he really doesn't need top teeth. Yesterday we went to the bank, he and Nix were running around and he fell and hit his head on the wall, making a dent in the wall. He was complaining about his teeth hurting afterwards and I had to tell him, he hit his forehead. His teeth were fine. My kids foreheads are made of concrete!

Having a baby is a lot of work, especially if you aren't getting enough sleep. But all the service and gifts make it fun, and in the end I only remember the good stuff anyways.

Here is Corbs taking a nap... all. day. long.

This is our latest family picture. We are at the gas station. On the top is Nix, Tino and the scribbled out person is part of the gas station, then below is Daddy wearing clothes, Corbs, the gas station again and Mommy. I love Nix's art work.

We made bread today. The first time I made bread with three kids. Corbs is asleep to the hum of the wheat grinder, the Bosch and the sink water running while I washed the dishes. This works! Popsicles make it all the more fun, it keeps them from eating all the dough too.

Story

Last Saturday Nix and Brett took off for a bike ride to Blockbuster. They didn't make it. As they were riding, Brett was following Nix up a dirt rode. Nix stopped halfway up a hill and asked Brett to push him the rest of the way. He started to push him and his front wheel started moving around crazy, then washed out at about walking speed. Nix's left hand started to swell and he was crying pretty hard, after a while he notice the blood on his other hand from a small gash. Meanwhile I'm at home with Tino. I'm trying to convince him to ride his bike, but he insists that we go on a bike ride, he wants to ride on the seat on the back of the bike... so I relent. Here I am cruising around on my bike, a sweatshirt hiding my belly. He wants to go down the hill towards the park... so we do, we go on the bike path a little ways, then I turn around at the end of the baseball park. I thought maybe Brett and Nix would be coming up behind me before I make it home, but right before I turn off the bike path, I see them crossing the river. What the?? I ask, "Where are you coming from?" Brett said,"I think Nix broke his hand." I do a little assessment, then load him in Tino's bike seat. Leave Brett and Tino and Nix's bike to make it home on their own, and ride/walk Nix home to take care of him. Brett pulled a little rock out of his bloody hand when he got home. I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and antibiotic ointment and put a band-aid on it. Then the swollen hand I rapped a little then put it on an ice pack. We watched cartoons and ate amazing brownies from our neighbor. He didn't seem to be in too much pain so we let him sleep, and he slept fine, so we gave it a couple days and today he did gymnastics and didn't complain once about it. It is still a little bruised, but he is healing great. I'm glad we avoided a cast this summer, but I don't think every summer will be cast-less in our future.

Bee Sting

Nix says, "It feels like a needle or something."

Last week at the park Nix experienced his first bee sting, in the palm of his left hand. I took this picture the next day, his hand was still a little puffy. I told him the bee will die now that it stung him, then he said, "He sting me, then he needs to go where the bad guys are?" I told him that the bee was scared about something, and that's why it stung him. Bees aren't bad, we like bees cuz we like honey! Nix said that the bee landed on him and he held very still and then the bee stung him. He was looking at the bee on his hand, I don't know why he was stung, unless someone else threatened it.

Very first Stitches

Nix, Tino and I went to a little park, that we never go to, across the street from our complex this morning. At one point I was helping Nix go across the monkey bars. Then he tried to go across the monkey bars on his own. I enjoyed watching him attempt them, until about the third attempt he fell down, turned and slammed his chin down on the foot bar. I approached him and he started to cry, so I said, "Let me see." I lifted his head, his teeth were fine, his nose was fine, then I looked at his chin and saw blood and immediately put my hand on it. I felt my finger go into his skin, so I took it away, took his helmet off and his shirt and pressed his shirt to the cut. It felt and looked deep. I sat with him on the bench until it stopped bleeding. Then looked over at Tino laying flat on his back in the wood chips, crying. I sat Nix on the bench, asked him to hold his shirt to his chin, picked up Tino and put him in his bike seat on my bike. Nix didn't want to ride his scooter home, so he walked and I walked with the bike and his scooter. We went home and I called my friends nearby to watch Tino, but they didn't answer. I then called Amy. She was going to school soon and I just needed Tino to take a nap while I took Nix to the Urgent Care, so she called her neighbor who gladly accepted to watch my sleeping boy.

The Urgent Care was clean and no one was there. I LOVED it, since I'm used to going to the Hospital and waiting for at least an hour to see anyone, along with lots of other injured or sick people. The nurse and doctor were both very kind and Nix was never nervous or afraid. He never cried, but when the doctor poked the needle into Nix's chin he whimpered, "It hurts" a few times, which helped the doctor know whether it was numb enough to begin stitching. He put 3 internal stitches in, then closed up the cut with 8 external stitches. I'm so proud of my brave Nix! I am amazed that he hasn't had stitches sooner. He turned 4 a couple days ago, and got stitches today. I was back with Tino 1.5 hours later. I couldn't believe it! I'm glad I could be with Nix alone, without Tino running amuck in the urgent care. I need to do more me and Nix time.

Blood and Smiles.

This scab was formed from his standing on the edge of a concrete step, leaning forward until he became top heavy and falling on his head, down one step. It only skinned his head, no blood. Then a few days later he hit his scab on my bathroom cupboard and burst it open. So it bled, not to bad but enough to drip down his forehead quite a bit. I should have spread the blood everywhere, then took a picture. You just don't think if it at the time.

Right now, Tino has a scab on his forehead, a cut and bruise on his eye, a scab under his nose and a split lip. In the picture he only has the scabs. His head is his target. The only thing he cries about is his mom trying to stop the bleeding. And maybe if it hurts bad enough he cries a little when he is initially hurt.