The Truth Behind the Pincher Bug Stories

I realized that I should put this little piece of information out there. It is true that Benjamin has been pinched by an earwig. It happened one time, at least a year ago...perhaps even two years. Apparently, like our stories of Africa, it was a life-altering event.

The Cast: Wear and Tear

Life was not all bad, for Little P with his cast. Much time was spent lying around or being carried from one room to the next. (Oh, he milked it. You know he did!)


Yet even with all the requests to be carried, he managed to wear off the entire bottom of the cast. In fact, in the following photo, there was not even any fabric on three-quarters of the bottom of the foot. At that point he only had two days left until D-Day, but the cast moved around so much he developed quite a wound (as you can see in THIS photo.)


And these toes. Oh, the toes! Such dirtiness! The toes, the rarely washed hair, the creases that could not be submerged in a tub of hot water! But we made it, and when he returned home after the cast's removal, he took a nap and then got right into the bath.

And, Finally...

So after four and a half weeks, the cast finally came off. Little P was a bit hesitant about the whole whirring blade thing. Mama had to hold his leg and take photos at the same time.


After shouting, "No, no!" a few times, he settled into submission. He was fascinated when the tech pried the cast apart on both sides.


Such a kind and helpful tech, he was.


After the cast came off, Benjamin immediately began bending his leg...repeatedly. He knew what was up and was clearly interested in this new sensation. He bent and straightened his leg continuously, saying, "I bending and bending and bending and bending..."


"...and bending, and bending, and bending and bending..." Mama stopped him long enough to snap this photo of his walking wound. "And bending, and bending, and bending...Mama! I bending and bending the leg, and bending..."

A Place to Call His Own

As if his own bedroom is not enough, Little P scored this lovely domain at a garage sale for a mere 10% of its retail value. He likes to stand atop the slide and survey his kingdom.


He is, however intimidating, a friendly landowner. He maintains an open door policy.


He is much loved by the peasants. They come to his window asking for basketballs.


He is also unconventional. Why slide down when there's more of a challenge in walking up?

Basketball

For Easter, Benjamin came into a bit of cash and this is what he purchased. His own basketball hoop - it's adjustable from three feet to six feet. it's presently set at four feet, which means he can barely make a basket. This does not inhibit his fun in any way. (Please disregard the sad state of our backyard. We will, one day, plant the hill. Those planters will, one day, be growing tomatoes, among other things.)


Little P does like to involve the dog in his sporting endeavors.


But only briefly. Once the dog begins playing with the ball, Benjamin runs after him shouting "Mines! Mines! Mines! Stop it, Buckley! Stop it! Mines!" Mama is not quite sure what to do about these fantastic outbursts.


But the boy sure does love his dog.

The Cast Goes to The Museum

Papa took some time off work while The Cast was with us (unrelated events), so we went down one morning to the Museum of Natural History's dinosaur exhibit. Fun, and a little bit scary.


You see, there was a young wooly elephant-mammoth thing that was begging to be ridden. It required great concentration.


And then there was this poor creature. Clearly no one was safe once the dinosaurs moved in.


They took over two levels!


And the T-Rex, well, he was terrifying. He moved his head and snapped his jowls, emitting a fearsome roar and that was more than Little P could handle.


I can't imagine why, can you?

The Cast: More of What We Did

Mama was really stretched to come up with ideas for activities for a boy who could no longer run and climb at the playground. So we entered the kitchen for some high-fallutin' fun. Like homemade granola bars. They're easy and they don't taste very good (because they are totally healthy), but drizzle some honey on top and Little P snarfs them right down. Best thing? He made them. Of course he loves them!


Next up, his personal CD player. One of his grandmas got him this and the day he first used it, he was busy for about a half hour listening to music and reading books. Big thank yous go out to everyone who gifted him with photos of themselves in a cast, with activity books, stickers, grow-a-bug capsules, and the like. You helped Mama get through the weeks of his cast.


While the cast laid him up for the first few days, it was not long before Little P learned to walk on it. He was practically unstoppable. So we taped letters on the floor and played with them. We stepped on them.


We drove cars on them, but not until we lined them up very carefully.


Of course, the cars had to drive fast.


And we sat on them. What else is a boy to do at the end of the day?

The Cast: The Early Days

Oh, for crying out loud...it's already the end of May! And you all have been anticipating cast photos so patiently. A quick update - on Thursday, Little P got his cast removed. It was on a total of 4.5 weeks. But before I show you those pics (yup, I took photos while helping hold his leg still), let's go over the past few weeks in sequence.



Homeschool Preschool. We did some of that. He knows the letter A pretty well, in fact. We practiced tracing the letter with fingers and crayons, driving over it with cars, walking on it (I taped an "A" and an "a" on the floor), sitting on it, and building it (with cute alphabet building blocks from Emma). Photos to come on the taped floor activity.



We also practiced folding, putting stickers on things, and using glue sticks. Mama is not fully comfortable with Little P's approach to glue sticks yet.  




But he's pretty good at building letters. Until he decides to bite the foam blocks.



Mama also discovered that a leftover piece of construction paper and a pair of kid scissors will keep him occupied for nearly an hour. So long as Mama does not mind picking up half a million tiny pieces of paper off the floor. (Oh, it is SO worth it!)



Funny, how that big A looks suspiciously like an H.



In other news, Little P can sing the entire alphabet song now. By himself. But only when it's his idea...

The Leg: The Verdict

It is, for real, a break. The cast is here to stay...for three to four weeks. But it all looks great - should heal up as if it never happened due to the pliable, quick healing bodies we have in our first years of life.

Now Mama must attend to the entertainment of a highly active little boy who can no longer walk or run or even crawl. (He's been scooting across the wood floors on his belly.) We may bust out the preschool curriculum that has been neglected. We will probably be baking our own snacks and doing a lot of seated art projects. Perhaps riding the kiddie train at the mall once a week?

Benjamin has been a real trooper through all of this. Because he tends to observe a lot before either getting involved or getting upset, he quietly watched as he was x-rayed and as they put on the cast. We brought games and books for the wait times and he was so patient. Despite the pain, he has had such a happiness and sweet spirit throughout!

The Leg: A Saga

Egads. I'll get to Benjamin's issues in a moment. Today I was supposed to be having brunch with my mom and grandma and my mom's out-of-town cousin and her daughter. It was supposed to be a pleasant morning until nap time - sitting outside in the lovely sun and eating chile relleno casserole and blueberry scones while sipping very strong coffee with cream in it.

But I awoke this morning to an injured dog. Actually, we arrived home late last night to find him limping around and shrieking at our touch. It was bed time, we herded him into his crate and figured he'd be better by morning. (Buckley, not Benjamin. We tried keeping Benjamin in a crate and he would have none of it.)

Well, he wasn't. And his left leg was clearly swollen, etcetera, etcetera. The only appointment that could be made with the vet was an hour into this brunch I was supposed to be part of. I went.

Now for the part you really want to hear. Long story short, I had to leave the dog at the vet (after an hour there already), put Benjamin down for a nap, wake him up early from his nap in order to pick up the dog, and return home.

But when I got home, there was a message from our health insurance provider saying that Benjamin's x-rays (from Saturday) in fact revealed a converse fracture - a hairline spiral fracture in his tibia. Because there were no orthopedic appointments available until next week, we needed to get him into an ER room tonight and get his leg splinted or cast.

So, Papa rushed home from work and we headed off. There were several mishaps along the way which I am too tired to mention, but in the end our Littlest P got carried out in a fabulous blue cast.

But, wait...there's more. This diagnosis may not, in fact, be accurate. Somehow there was an open appointment tomorrow morning, bright and early at 8:30 (sigh...) so we may go in only to have his cast removed, and perchance not even reapplied. Apparently, the "break" showed up on one x-ray, but not the other. When this happens, sometimes it's not even a break they are seeing, but an artery.

So, I will update as I get news, but for now enjoy the photo of his first cast! He's none too happy with it, I can tell ya that.

At least the dog is running around happily, high on his painkillers and anti-inflammatory shot.

Mama's Fault

Here's our young hero. See his bandaged ankle? It's a mild sprain, but don't let that fool ya. He's been in pain for the past 24 hours. He hasn't been able to walk on it. He won't be able to walk on it until Monday. And it's all Mama's fault.



On Friday, after tumbling class, Mama thought it would be fun to swing by this park that we do not usually get to visit. Technically, we are not allowed there as it is in a ritzy neighborhood that pays big HOA's for such a sweet playground. But being the riff-raff that we are, we do not heed class restrictions.

In the center of the playground is this two-story (at least) tall, fabulous climbing structure. It's all enclosed in bars and looks like a tree house. As Mama was watching from the ground below, Little P climbed lickety-split up all the ladders to the top level. Yikes. Mama scampered up the climbing wall and spiral stairs to catch up with him.

She did. This is not the part of the story where he hurts his ankle. No, he didn't fall from the top. Though that would make a good story, wouldn't it?

Mama got to the top before anything scary happened. Then Mama realized that the only way to get down from that level was via the narrow ladders up (which we all know is twice as hard going down as it is to come up) or the long tunnel slide.

"Benjamin, would you like to ride down the slide on Mama's lap?" Mama inquired.

"Um...yeah!" Little P agreed.

And so it went. But Little P was quite nervous. Half way down he got fearful and tried to stop us with his feet. Mama is too heavy for a little boy's feet. His little ankle bent, he started crying, and when emerging from the tunnel, he cried out, "The slide is scary!" He did not stop until he fell asleep in the car on the way home.

By Saturday, he was still crying off and on. "Ow, ow, ow, owweeeeee! It hurts, Mama!" Twas time to get to the doctor. Mama had to attend an adoption workshop, so Papa accompanied Little P to the clinic. X-rays showed that there was no permanent damage, and he came away with an immobilized foot and orders to stay off of it until Monday.

For now, he is watching a year's worth of videos in one weekend. Awesome.

Injuries

This week was a doozy. Little P must be going through a growth spurt or something because he has been clumsy as all get-out: opening doors that snag his toes, tripping as he runs and falling on his face, losing his balance while sitting on a picnic bench and landing on his back.

But some of the injuries sustained this week were random accidents or perhaps, ahem, a little misbehavior. The list:

1. Grabbing a hot curling iron in Mama's bathroom. A large blister ensued.

2. Taking dirt out of a broken pot in order to throw it and cutting his thumb.

3. Falling face-first onto the edge of a brick planter box while playing.

4. Stepping on a bee and getting stung.

Holy moly. Let's hope next week is a little easier on the body.