My Baby Is Broken! (where are the mommy sedatives?)

E broke her arm this week - of course, the right one, with two weeks left of school, so we will be improvising. Yay for homeschool!

I did not see what happened, but she said she was walking down the slide at the park, tripped, and put her arm out to catch herself - and obviously hit hard. All I heard was "Oh, dear!" and saw her arm flopping as she ran over to me. I didn't think it was broken, because she only started to cry when she saw how her arm was hanging. We were there with another family, and thankfully when I said, "What should I do?" the other mom said, "Where is your pediatrician's office? Go there, right now." I look back and laugh at myself, because my brain just shut down at the sight of my baby's arm flopping like a rag doll's. I think it's a good thing I didn't realize it was broken because I may have just passed out on the spot. So much for grace under pressure!

She snapped both the radius and the ulna right through, a couple of inches behind her wrist. We went to the pediatrician, then the orthopaedist, then the ER, where they tried to set the bone. New X-rays today showed that it didn't work, so we get to go in for general anesthesia on Monday, where they will try to set it one more time, and then do surgery if that doesn't work.

I am (quietly) freaking out over here. At the ER, the nurse told me I should probably not be in the room when they worked on E's arm, because it would be very upsetting, but the doctor did not know, apparently, that I might want to leave because he just started. It was awful, to put it mildly! But, E needed me to be there with her, and she, thanks to the magic of conscious sedation, doesn't remember a thing. My shoulders are so tight they hurt. My stomach has butterflies that seem to have taken up permanent residence, but E is left with only a vague distrust of the orthopaedist. I'm glad for her.

This puts a wee kink in the summer plans - no swimming lessons in two weeks, and potentially no ballet recital, either. I'm also thinking we may have to change vacation plans, because she will probably need her cast off in the middle of when we were going to be out of town for an extended trip. Ah, well, c'est la vie! And, she is alive, she didn't break her neck or have a concussion, or any of the other horrifying things that can happen while children play.

Sweet Sounds of Spring

Today something happened that I found blog-worthy! This week, my girlies, whom we shall call E and A, both have their birthdays, and my parents are visiting. We went to the store this morning, and upon our return, we saw a sparrow fly away from the front porch. I said, "Oh, no, I bet she's building a nest!" My mom said, "Yep, she's got a nest on top of the wreath on the door. You might want to take it down, or you'll end up with a bird in your house sometime."

I didn't believe her, and thought it was nifty that there was a bird nesting on my wreath, so I didn't think about it again.

This evening, I was baking a cake for A's birthday, and decided that since I had to separate a dozen eggs and sift flour and stuff three times, I would like my iPod, and headed out the front door to get it out of my car.

As I was sitting at the kitchen table, I thought I heard tweeting. Interesting, since it was dark outside and birds are usually quiet, and it wasn't time for the bird clock to chime. Then I noticed the focused attention of my cats on something above my head..... and saw the sparrow sitting on the ceiling fan!

I called my mom downstairs to show her, at which point we were both caught in a fit of the giggles. Then the bird started flying around, and we thought maybe if we opened the front door, left the porch light on and turned out the other lights, the bird would fly back outside. Instead, she flew straight upstairs - where there was also a light and we hadn't thought to turn it off! She went right down to the bonus room where my dad was trying to watch television, after a busy day of building the swing set in the back yard.

At that point we had not only the cats, but the dog, my girls and my dad involved too. We ended up shutting the cats in my bedroom, putting the dog in his crate, sending the girls with Grandma to finish getting ready for bed, and my dad and I kept the bird flying around so she would get tired and let us catch her. My dad was finally able to throw a towel over her, picked her up gently and let her go outside - after everyone got to see her, pet her head, and of course, take a picture.

I went outside to take the wreath down right away, because I didn't think we would remember not to use the front door for several months while waiting for the baby birds to fledge, and found - you guessed it - five little blue-speckled eggs. They are so tiny! We decided to wait and see if the mother bird will come back tonight, and otherwise, they will probably be too cold by tomorrow. I hope she comes back - I feel badly for her that she was traumatized in the house.

Last year I had a dove make a nest in one of my hanging plants, but I haven't put any out yet this year because it's been too cold (silly me, I thought we were safe from nests). We left her in there, and she laid three eggs - we even saw one of the baby birds just after it had hatched. I have a picture to prove it! But, the next day, mommy dove (whom the girls named Molly), baby bird (Rosie) and eggs were gone - probably eaten by a racoon or something. It was sad. It would be really fun to be able to see the progress of these baby birds, if the mother will come back. Here's hoping!

I started a blog?

Well, this is interesting! I wanted to respond to a post on a friend's blog, and discovered that in the process, I would be starting one of my own. Hmmm....

I started out calling it "Sunflower House" - I love sunflowers. They are such bright, happy flowers, and they permeate my house with their cheerful faces. Also, there is a sweet children's book called The Sunflower House that my girls and I enjoy tremendously. I was going to hame our homeschool "Sunflower House", but then someone pointed out that it will be the name on my children's diplomas and transcripts, and I decided that we will be "Acorn Hill Academy," instead. It's boring, and will make no sense if we ever move, but it works for now.

Why did I call myself 2lilreds? I am the proud mom of two little redheaded girls. They are the delight of my life. They are 367 days apart in age, which makes for lots of fun and lots of challenges. We've just started our homeschool journey together, and we're having a great time and learning a lot - and not just academically. :-)

I don't know that I have anything significant to say, so we will just see where this little piece of cyberspace takes me. Welcome - and God bless.