Rolling With It

James returned to school today, his first day back with the wheelchair.  (He has to use the bathroom in the nurse's office -- she helps him and it's handicapped accessible.)  But it seems like things went well!  His teacher said, "I'm not going to lie -- it's like he was a celebrity.  They all wanted to sit by him."  :)  They also were all helping him with putting his papers in the basket and that kind of thing.  So nice!  Hopefully they'll still be helpful once the novelty wears off.

The boys also had a friend over after school, which they really enjoyed.  

Mike, on the other hand, spent most of the day at the doctor's office and had to undergo some unpleasant medical tests.  It turns out he probably has pneumonia, and has to be on a liquid diet for three days for some GI issues. Poor guy!

Bye Bye Cavity

Mattie had to have a small cavity filled on Friday, and Mike reports that he was a perfect angel. Fillings seem to be better now than when we were kids -- he just had to have the nitrous oxide, no novacaine (and they even made the gas watermelon-scented for him).  He could eat right away afterwards, and enjoyed his real watermelon that evening.

Mo Snow

 I thought that with eight inches of snow on Sunday night that the kids would have a snow day on Monday, but nope!  Buffalo just keeps plowing along.

(And I'm thinking we may have to take down our "Welcome Winter" sign -- winter is overstaying its welcome!)

Grandma to the Rescue

Hooray!  Grandma came in to help us out while James is recovering.  She has already played many a hand of Angry Birds Uno, to James's delight.  :)

We are going to try to take him to school tomorrow, first day back in the wheelchair.  Our main concern is how he'll be able to go to the bathroom (since he'll need an adult to help/lift him) -- once that's figured out, hopefully the rest will be pretty smooth.  (Fingers crossed, anyhow!)

Get Well Cards

 Jamesie's classmates made get-well cards for him yesterday.  They were so sweet!  The mom of one of his friends called yesterday, too -- his friend Ryan was worried about him, and wanted to offer to come over to keep James company, and color or watch TV with him.  We'll try to do that next week!  (And we told her to reassure Ryan that James was doing well.)

James also had fun decorating his cast, although he didn't use permanent marker, so I'm not sure how long his drawings will last.

We also went to the medical supply place and rented a wheelchair for him to use when he goes back to school.  At first they didn't think they had any kid-size ones, but fortunately they found one in the back!

Not as Planned

I thought we had gotten past the medical stuff for this month, but no -- James broke his leg this afternoon sledding.  (The green leg is the cast, which goes up above the knee and will have to be on for at least three weeks.  The white thing on his other leg is just a big sock to keep him warm, since his pants didn't fit over the cast.)  Ugh!!!

We'll have to get a wheelchair for him to use at school and pretty much carry him everywhere at home (he can't put any weight on that leg).  Poor kid!!

It wasn't immediately clear that his leg was broken when it first happened (although he was definitely in a lot of pain until the Tylenol started working). We went to the pediatrician first, and she sent us to the X-ray place, and then we went to an orthopedic place to get the cast on.  The whole thing took several hours altogether, but probably better than waiting around the E.R.  The break is in his shin bone, about a third of the way up between his ankle and knee.  The cast is so big because they want to make it impossible for him to put weight on the leg.  (I guess little kids can't be trusted to do that on their own!)

Statistician

 James went back to school this week, and everything went fine -- he also seems to be back to eating his normal amounts.

This morning I was wearing my Penn sweatshirt, and James said, "Is that for Pittsburgh or Pennasee?"  I explained to him that it was for Pennsylvania, and that Pittsburgh was a city in Pennsylvania (and that the other state was Tennessee).  He said, "Because the last time I saw Pittsburgh, they were playing Houston.  And the score was 34-35."  I looked it up on the Internet later, and he was absolutely right -- Pitt and Houston played in the bowl game, and that was the final score.  (Dear high school football team, we've got your statistician right here!)

Lost Tooth

 Matthew did end up losing his tooth overnight last week, and we never did find it.  But the Tooth Fairy came and left him two quarters anyhow!  (He thought the extra quarter might be for James.)  I haven't gotten any good pictures yet of him without his tooth!

James seems to be mostly recovered from his tonsil surgery.  He hasn't needed any medicine for a day or two, although he sometimes still has a bit of ear pain (and asks for a warm washcloth to put on it).  And he's gradually getting back to eating.  He stopped eating altogether for a couple of days -- would not swallow anything but water -- which had us worried.  (Good thing he still has his feeding tube.)  But yesterday he ate toast and turkey, and today he's had Cheerios, pancakes, and milk (formula), so that's an improvement.

Matthew was out of school with a cold the beginning of last week, then I caught it in the middle of the week (just in time for a work trip), and James caught it at about the same time.  We're not quite rid of the sniffles yet (probably not helped by the extremely dry air in our house -- about 5% humidity -- so we're getting some estimates for a whole-house humidifer.)

Orange is the New Black

The boys watched the Horrible Histories Rosa Parks video on Saturday morning, and in the evening, Mattie said, "Rosa Parks was really brave to sit on the front of the bus."

Me:  Yes, she was.
Mattie: And then no one else rode the bus.
Me: Yes, it's called a boycott.  The bus people couldn't make any money, so they changed the rules so that people could sit wherever they wanted.
Mattie:  Why didn't they just do that in the first place?
Me: That's a good question.  They should have, but sometimes people aren't very smart, and they treat people differently because of how they look.
(pause)
Mattie:  Or maybe it's because white is more beautiful than black.
(Me thinking: Ack!)
Me: Well, some people don't think so.
Mattie:  Rosa Parks probably didn't think so. She had a lot of black.
Me:  Mattie, are you talking about what color clothes people wear?
Mattie:  Yeah!  Maybe there can be a bus where orange sits in the front!

(I don't think Mattie and James really think about race yet in terms of categories -- they've never described anyone in terms of their race, etc. -- but I didn't quite expect a clothing-based interpretation of the civil rights movement!)

Loose Tooth

Mattie was up crying in the middle of the night because his tooth hurt. (He'd been complaining for a few days about his front teeth bothering him and one of them being loose -- he thought he'd bitten into some cereal that caused it.)

Fortunately, there was a pediatric dentist with Saturday hours who was able to squeeze us in today (amazing!  and they're only 10 minutes from our house!)  Mike took Mattie over, and they did x-rays, and his permanent tooth underneath is ready to come in!  I was really surprised; I thought he'd be a bit older for that.  But it looks like the Tooth Fairy will be visiting our house sooner rather than later.  (The orange thing in the picture is a "tooth case" they gave him at the dentist's office.)

They also did a cleaning for him while he was there, and he was in the Scooby Doo room.  So, altogether a good experience!  (Unfortunately, though, he does have a small cavity, so hopefully he'll still like them after they do the filling in a couple weeks.)

Snow Day 2015

 First snow day of the year!  Matthew said, "I feel like the people on Frozen!"

Look Ma, No More Tonsils

Jamesie had his tonsils and adenoids out today.  He was such a good boy.  Mike was with him before the surgery -- I was trying to get there, too, after dropping Mattie off at school, but the snow had traffic slowed to a crawl (and the hospital is in downtown Buffalo), so I didn't make it until after he'd gone into the OR.  Mike said James charmed all the people there.  :)

The procedure itself was quicker than I expected, which was nice.  James was really angry in the recovery room -- he just kept thrashing around and screaming, "No!  No!"  When he woke up a bit from the anesthesia, they let us go upstairs to his room, and he was still mightily pissed off to have the IV in his hand.  He kept shaking it at us and glaring and yelling "no."  (Which had to be no good at all for his poor throat!) Our nurse was awesome, and she said they could take it out once he had something to drink (and they made sure he wasn't going to throw it up).  So he eventually had a sip of water, and since he has the g-tube, we could give him medicine (Tylenol) that way.

Once they took the IV out, he calmed down and took a little nap, and he was much more back to himself after that.  (One of the things he said, sleepily:  "Mommy?  Is 15 times 4 sixty?") They let us go home around 1 PM.  He was tired on the way and laid down when we got here, but after Mattie got home, they played on the iPad and we had a few hands of Angry Birds Uno.  So, James is doing really well today, although the doctor said tomorrow is going to be rougher.  We're going to do our best to keep his pain meds on schedule, which hopefully will help.  So far he's also been very good about taking sips of water, though he hasn't eaten much yet.

Temps are single digits today and tonight -- brrr!!  Thank goodness for valet parking at the hospital!

Boys & Co.

Happy New Year!

 Happy 2015!  We celebrated in the traditional fashion, by allowing small children to play with fire. :)

The Folly of Youth

Young James insists that he is going to root for "Alacabama" rather than Ohio State in tonight's Sugar Bowl.  Oh, where did we go wrong?