The cast

On a warmish Sunday afternoon late in February, we decided to take F to the playground to burn off some energy. He had a great time, as usual; he has never met a stranger and will immediately approach anyone and ask them to play. On this particularly day the kids were a little older than him, but he doesn't care, he considers everyone a friend. He was swinging on the monkey bars and I watched him get one ring farther from the platform than he usually does (trying to keep up with the big kids). I got up to head his way and saw him struggling to get back, but he was unable to get his footing. I started moving faster and then he let go, dropping about 2 or 3 ft to the ground. I saw his right foot hit the ground first with the toes pointed down, and he immediately started to cry. I felt terrible!!! I scooped him up thinking he would shake it off like usual. I jokingly asked if we needed to cut off his foot, which usually makes him giggle, but the crying got worse. Through his sobs he said he wanted to go home...what? He never wants to leave when there are friends there. So we get home and look at it, he won't let us touch it, won't put any weight on it. There is no swelling or bruising, so it can't be broken, right? Hours later there is no improvement, and he cried and said it hurt all night. My child rarely cries, so I was worried.
To compound matters, the next two days I MUST be at school. It is the science fair; I have all sorts of deliveries being made and parent volunteers to help set-up and then the following day there are 12 judges coming from various hospitals and businesses to judge my 7th graders. No one helps with this event. I am the sole organizer. How is it that kids are able to time this sort of stuff so perfectly?
Luckily, Mark was able to take him to the doctor on Monday. Half way through set-up I get word that his pediatrician said he needed an x-ray, and the x-ray shows it's broken. OMG!
One of the parents volunteering was able to suggest a wonderful pediatric orthopedist, Dr. Reed. Amazingly, he could see him on Tuesday, but again I had to be at work and Mark had to go out of town. Thank God my mom was able to meet Mark at the doctor and then take F home afterwards.



I was shocked to see him come home with a red cast and not an orange cast, but he wanted it to look like Lightning McQueen.


He was on bed rest for a 24 hours to keep the swelling down, but after that he was supposed to walk on it in order to stimulate bone growth. He was very hesitant at first. The boot he wore over the cast made one leg about 4 inches longer than the other, so I had to get him a lift for his left shoe.

It did not take long for him to adjust and about a week later he was running on it. Aside from not being able take a bath, it wasn't awful. Not that I'm ready to do it again anytime soon!


He was a trouper. He had it for 28 days and it almost feels like a distant memory.

Christmas 2010

Yeah, I realize it's June, but since I have a couple months off I can try to catch up. This was the first Christmas where F sorta got the whole Santa Claus thing. We decided to use the Elf on a Shelf to amp up the magic of the season, but F wasn't all that into it. Beforehand, we told F that Santa was going to send us an elf, so he could watch over him and let Santa know if he was being good. We told him he could name the elf and tell him what he wanted from Santa. When we finally put the elf out it took F a while to notice it. Then was time to name him. I REALLY wanted F to pick his own name without suggestion, but I failed to make this clear to Mark, so he threw out a few names (Peter, Jimmy, Bubba). Guess which one stuck? Yes, we had an elf name Bubba. We read the book and F seemed into it, so that night we moved it to another spot. I had to remind him in the morning to look for it, which proved to be a theme over the next 2 weeks. The idea that Bubba was reporting back to Santa never really seemed to be a big deal for F, so there was no tearful goodbye on Christmas Eve. Hopefully next year he will be more into it.

We asked F what he wanted for Christmas, and he said an orange jeep like Molly's. His favorite color is still orange, but it is impossible to find an orange jeep so we settled for red.

Luckily, we have a big field that he can ride to....unfortunately, there are quite a few mailboxes between here and there.

He's getting better at avoiding them, but he often forgets to keep his eyes on the sidewalk and drives while looking behind him.

We got to experience our fist Christmas show put on by a bunch of 3 year olds and it did not disappoint. They spent half the time waving to their families in the audience, but it was adorable.

The girl on F's left got completely freaked out when Santa showed up to give out candy canes. She tried to hide behind F, which he did not appreciate and kept pushing her off him.

I have to preface this by saying I hate fireworks! I saw a kid nearly blow his hand off when I was a kid and it scarred me for life. So when Mark said he wanted to get fireworks for new years eve for him and F, I was not pleased. He promised they were safe "baby fireworks", and wouldn't last long. Luckily, they are not as cheap as he remembers and he is thrifty, so he only got a few. I kept my distance and held my breathe while taking these pics.

In true boy fashion, he thought is was awesome!