Adventures in Parenting

Wow, this is completely unrelated to parenting but I thought you should know that I am a crane expert.  I just turned in 20 SEO articles on cranes (the machines, not the birds) and I don't ever want to talk about those things again.  SO, we shall never mention cranes as long as we live, ok?

Anyhow, it seems that things have been pretty wild around here lately.  Chad and I have both alluded to things on our blogs, so I thought I should fill you in.  The first instance happened last week with our sweet Reesey.  I was driving to a birthday party for a YL leader with all 3 kiddos in their appropriate seat.  As I was about to turn onto the street where the party was, a car in front of me ABRUPTLY slammed on their brakes.  Obviously, with no warning, I had to do the same thing.  I came to a screeching halt and then heard Reese cry out.  I looked over my shoulder and saw a pretty traumatic sight.  Reese's entire car seat had dislodged from its intended location.  How, you ask?  I don't have a clue.  Maybe it wasn't strapped in?  Maybe Harper accidentally unbuckled it when she got in her seat?  Maybe the junky seat belt plastic just decided it couldn't hold our chunky monkey's seat in place?  Who knows.  I do know that because Reese and Harper sit in the third row of the car, and because the seat in front of Reeese was folded up, and because there is a large metal hook sticking out of the back of the seat-  Ewww, brace yourselves . . .  Reese had some MAJOR mouth trauma.  Her poor little mouth made direct contact with that pesky metal hook.  Ugh.  I get chills just thinking about it.  As I glanced over my shoulder, there was a major bloody situation.  I immediately pulled the car into a driveway and jumped out (slipping and sliding on the snowy sidewalk, mind you).  I pulled Reese out of her seat and tried to comfort her.  I called Chad (who was less than 100 yards away at the party) and he ran out.  Reese was SUCH a trooper.  Very few tears were shed and after cleaning up the exorbitant amounts of blood, she seemed OK.  We knew she was ok when she downed a piece of cake at the birthday party.  Her lip was busted, the inside of her mouth was cut in several places, and after a visit to the pediatric dentist, we found that three of her teeth were loose.  Thank goodness little ones are resilient.  As of Tuesday, two of the three teeth had tightened back into place.  If the mouth trauma was severe enough to kill the third tooth, it'll have to come out.  She will be our toothless little monkey for about 4 years- if that is necessary.  We are PRAYING that it's not!

This is the day of the accident.  Notice the scratched chin, and remnants of blood around her mouth.  Her face had a different "puffy" look for a few days as well.  Poor little girl!

Anyhow, after that long diatribe I'll keep the next story short.  Yesterday, while the girls were having their traditional room time, Harper decided that she needed a little snack . . . Reese's pony-tail holder was the particular snack of choice.  Now, Harper is 3 and she DEFINITELY knows better than to put tiny things into her mouth.  She asked me if I knew where Reese's pony-tail holder was and I said no.  She said, "Oh, I know.  It's in my belly!"  Hmmmm.  Interesting.  We are still awaiting the reappearance of the little green pony-tail holder.  I'm not too worried about it.

So, all of that is to say that we have had some interesting days around here.  I'm tired and ready for the weekend.  Hopefully you are not experiencing anything of the sort around your house!