A Cautionary Tale for Crazy Babies Everywhere

Seth is a handful. Anyone who knows him personally knows this about him. He is a 15-month-old force to be reckoned with. Our neighbor friend calls him Sethanator, I call him Little Monster, his brothers call him Baby Kong...you get the idea. Today he is slightly less of a handful, but only literally, and today we're adding "Mr. Stubs" to his well-earned and expanding collection of nicknames.

Last night he chopped the end of his finger off.

All 3 boys were playing in the front yard with the babysitter. Mr. B turned his bike upside down and was spinning the pedals. Word on the street is that this is a super fun game. Seth thought so anyway. He reached out and stuck his chubby little finger in the bike chain, which cut it right off. (We still haven't found it.)




It took three of us to hold Seth down for this shot...Did I mention he's a handful? The x-ray doesn't do it justice since the 2nd finger wasn't straight at the time the x-ray was taken and it obviously omits the blood and gore an actual photo wouldn't. I'd post an actual photo, but every time Seth's finger was exposed last night it gushed blood...which made picture taking feel irresponsible...But, if you hold your hand up and look at your index finger and imagine everything north of the nailbed is gone and then imagine that there's a bone visibly poking out from the center of that, you'll get a good idea of what Seth's finger looks like.


Right now he's bandaged up to his elbow, with a tube sock over that so he can't rip off the bandages. He doesn't know that he should be miserable and very still. He also doesn't know that he shouldn't chew on his stump and thump it on things, which is a little disturbing. We meet with a hand surgeon tomorrow, so we'll know more about the fate of the rest of his finger then.




If you thought taking care of a rambunctious baby was hard, try taking care of a rambunctious baby on heavy narcotics. Holy Smokes. I need a nap.

For My Mom Who Cannot Imagine What a Fried Egg Flower Might Look Like

A couple nights ago I was happily sewing along on my latest project while I chatted on the phone with my mom. She asked what I was working on and when I said only the cutest flower quilt EVER, she asked what the flowers looked like. I guess my description "like fried eggs with two more layers" didn't conjure up mental images of a very cute flower. Hopefully this helps:

Resolution for 2010

Thinking back to last New Year's Day, I can't help but be a little disappointed with this New Year's Day. If I'm writing candidly, I have to admit that I'm nowhere near where I thought I'd be a year ago. I'd be ungrateful if I didn't acknowledge the positive things that have happened for my family in 2009, but still I think I set my expectations a little high.


Probably from thinking about this combined with everyday stress and tension, the other day I had a massive headache. A headache so bad that at a couple of points I thought death would be less painful. Then I ate an apple and my headache morphed into little more than a dull pain. I started thinking about that show "Mythbusters"...


I hate that show. Ordinarily I try to avoid use of the word "hate" because it's so negative. But I really hate that show. Is it that one guy's seriously annoying mustache that leads me to feel so strongly about the show? Or is it the fact that whenever it's on I find myself internally begging these morons to grow up and find a real job? But if I really think about it, these people are being paid lots of money to figure out whether or not there's any legitimacy to MacGyver's escape tactics so who am I to begrudge them that?


Back to my headache and the apple...I'm pretty sure it was the motion of chewing and the pressure of the apple on my teeth that relaxed my jaw and decreased the intensity of the pain in my head. But the old adage came to mind: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." What if there's something to that? What if the healing powers of the basic apple extend beyond TMJ and headaches?


RESOLVED, and thereby infinitely lowering my expectations for 2010, I am going to test the apple a day theory by eating an apple every single day for the entire year. I'm being influenced by the handful of episodes of Mythbusters I've suffered through for sure, but what could it hurt? By the end of the year I could be in better shape than ever and planning a vacation with the money I've saved on copays.