Our son is now 19 months old. For all those who took the over on his first trip to the emergency room, you win. The over/under line was set at 18 months by our daughter. That is how old she was at her first of what has been four ER trips so far.
To be fair, one of the trips turned out to be unnecessary. However, when a four year old says her head really hurts and she feels sick hours after cracking her head on the floor earlier in the day, you make the trip even if you think it's nothing. Her first ER trip though, that was something.
When Caelyn was 18 months old she developed a fascination with spinning. I was in the family room talking to my wife on the phone while our daughter was in the adjacent living room spinning round and round. It was really very funny to watch. I was laughing about it as I spoke to Kerry. I was laughing right up until Caelyn lost control and fell like a stone on to the hardwood floor.
I told Kerry I would call her back and scooped up Caelyn. She buried her head into my shoulder, clutching me tightly. I tried to move her head back so I could take a look but she fought me like mad. I decided to carry her into the bathroom to get a look at her in the big mirror. It was then that I saw the blood.
My shirt was soaked with it. Caelyn had it all over her clothes as well. At that point, I forced her head back to look at her face. It took a minute but I found the cut. It was clean, almost like a scalpel and it was deep. Her chin was split open. I called the doctor who sent us to St. Barnabas. After a quick application of a large bandage, it was off on the first ER trip.
Caelyn calmed down in the car. By the time we arrived, she was her normal self. We checked in and waited for the triage nurse to take a look. For some reason, the children's waiting area was unavailable so we were in the main waiting room. This actually turned out to be a blessing as the man next to us really needed something to occupy his mind.
He was waiting for his son to arrive while his daughter-in-law was undergoing emergency treatment after being assaulted during a home invasion. Caelyn entertained the man, even putting a smile on his face by singing, dancing and climbing up in the chairs and jumping off. You would never had know that a short while earlier she was screaming as she bled all over the place.
We eventually got called in to see the triage nurse. They took a look, instantly knowing stitches were necessary. We were moved to a private room. A toy was brought in to keep Caelyn entertained. The toy was loud and repetitive (it's a Diego field journal) but it was just what was needed to distract Caelyn as more nurses and doctors came to look at the cut.
Finally it came time for the stitches. Anaesthetic was given in shot form to the chin. Shortly after the shot, I saw the backboard being brought in. Because of her age, Caelyn would have to be completely immobilized while the stitches were put in place.
The nurses laid the backboard down and I carried her to it. The nurses and I had to hold her struggling little body down while they wrapped her in what was essentially large Velcro straps. The straps covered most of her body, leaving only her head free. She tried to thrash around but could not. She screamed and screamed.
All I could do was talk to her and put my hand over the straps holding her down. A nurse held her head in place as the doctor sewed up the cut. When it was all over, they released her from the backboard and she clung tighter to me than she had before.
The stitches came out two weeks later. It was a tense couple of weeks. I was nervous each time she popped her chin. Caelyn would get hysterical every time we cleaned the cut. Then, one week to the day after the stitches were removed, my fear came true. She busted open her chin again.
This time Kerry was home. I took one look at the cut and we packed up and headed back to St. Barnabas for ER trip number two. This time, glue could be used to close the wound. So, instead of being strapped to a backboard, she could sit in my lap and the whole procedure was over before she knew what was going on.
Since that time, there have been two other ER trips. One for a hernia that required surgery (a story for another day). The other was for the above mentioned head crack. Somehow, given our daughter's personality, I think there will be more.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
One "Last"
When our first child was born, my aunt sent us the book, "Let Me Hold You Longer." by Karen Kingsbury. It is the story of a mother looking back on all the "lasts" of her grown child's life. The last time she held a bottle, the last time she rocked him, and on and on until the last time he drove away to start a life on his own.
Having a newborn, I found the book to be sad and depressing. I did not understand why such a book, as well done as it was, was sent to us as a gift at the time of our first child. Today, almost five years later, I still find the book sad and depressing but I understand why such a book was sent to us. It is a reminder to never take any moment, no matter how small or routine for granted.
As I was making my daughter's lunch for school today, it hit me that this would be the last day of this routine. There will be other days and other routines, but this would be the last time for this particular one. Tomorrow is the last day of preschool.
The routine will be changed for tomorrow. There will be the year end show and presentation instead of staying for lunch. Instead of the same few parents or nannies who drop off and pick up the kids each day, there will be a school full of parents who will be there to enjoy the festivities.
All this is how it should be but this morning was the last time for the routine that has served us well since the beginning of September. Preschool is ending.
There have been other "lasts" and if I am blessed to live a long life, there will be many more. There will also be a lot of firsts. When summer ends, there will be the first day of kindergarten and the first day of another routine but as dawn sets on this one, there is a little sadness at this "last".
"Long ago you came to me,
a miracle of firsts:
First smiles and teeth and baby steps,
a sunbeam on a burst.
But one day you will move away
and leave to me your past
And I will be thinking of
a lifetime of your lasts"
from "Let Me Hold You Longer" by Karen Kingsbury
Having a newborn, I found the book to be sad and depressing. I did not understand why such a book, as well done as it was, was sent to us as a gift at the time of our first child. Today, almost five years later, I still find the book sad and depressing but I understand why such a book was sent to us. It is a reminder to never take any moment, no matter how small or routine for granted.
As I was making my daughter's lunch for school today, it hit me that this would be the last day of this routine. There will be other days and other routines, but this would be the last time for this particular one. Tomorrow is the last day of preschool.
The routine will be changed for tomorrow. There will be the year end show and presentation instead of staying for lunch. Instead of the same few parents or nannies who drop off and pick up the kids each day, there will be a school full of parents who will be there to enjoy the festivities.
All this is how it should be but this morning was the last time for the routine that has served us well since the beginning of September. Preschool is ending.
There have been other "lasts" and if I am blessed to live a long life, there will be many more. There will also be a lot of firsts. When summer ends, there will be the first day of kindergarten and the first day of another routine but as dawn sets on this one, there is a little sadness at this "last".
"Long ago you came to me,
a miracle of firsts:
First smiles and teeth and baby steps,
a sunbeam on a burst.
But one day you will move away
and leave to me your past
And I will be thinking of
a lifetime of your lasts"
from "Let Me Hold You Longer" by Karen Kingsbury
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
One Dad, Two Children and No Power
In a world with no power, one man must feed and entertain two small children. What will he do with no television to fall back on? And how, oh how, will he make dinner with no microwave at his disposal?
Such was the case today.
We lost power for a couple of hours. Fortunately for me, it was during our son's nap time. Even more fortunate, he was exhausted and decided to take a marathon nap. He slept through the whole thing.
It has been dark and rainy all day so when the power went out, the house was fairly dark. I broke out a couple of battery powered lanterns for light. Our daughter, who is not afraid of the dark, was just worried about how she would be able to see to play. When she I gave her one of the lanterns to carry around, she found the idea of no power quite enjoyable.
Normally I do not like having gas appliances. We have had numerous small and annoying but not necessarily dangerous gas leaks over the years. I always felt that if all things are even, I would prefer a house with only electric appliances. Today, however, it was nice to have the gas appliances.
With no power, the microwave is unavailable and if we had electric appliances, there would be no way to cook dinner. As it was, I could use the gas stove to make dinner. I would need to manually light the burner as it has an electric lighter rather than a pilot light but that is not difficult. So I did what any good father would do in this situation, I grabbed my cell phone and ordered pizza.
As I was talking to the lady at Mario's about our order, the power came back on. There was no need for the pizza order after all but hey, I already had them on them on the phone so what could I do. I completed the order. Our daughter was very excited. Our son was still asleep.
So I sent our daughter to wake our son in time for the pizza delivery. Pizza arrival is quite the spectacle at our house. The Beatles got a colder reception at JFK on their first trip to the U.S. than the pizza guy gets at our house. The delivery guy was laughing so much that I thought he was going to have trouble making change.
So with the arrival of dinner, the crisis was officially passed and I somehow managed to survive the horrible power outage of twenty ten.
Such was the case today.
We lost power for a couple of hours. Fortunately for me, it was during our son's nap time. Even more fortunate, he was exhausted and decided to take a marathon nap. He slept through the whole thing.
It has been dark and rainy all day so when the power went out, the house was fairly dark. I broke out a couple of battery powered lanterns for light. Our daughter, who is not afraid of the dark, was just worried about how she would be able to see to play. When she I gave her one of the lanterns to carry around, she found the idea of no power quite enjoyable.
Normally I do not like having gas appliances. We have had numerous small and annoying but not necessarily dangerous gas leaks over the years. I always felt that if all things are even, I would prefer a house with only electric appliances. Today, however, it was nice to have the gas appliances.
With no power, the microwave is unavailable and if we had electric appliances, there would be no way to cook dinner. As it was, I could use the gas stove to make dinner. I would need to manually light the burner as it has an electric lighter rather than a pilot light but that is not difficult. So I did what any good father would do in this situation, I grabbed my cell phone and ordered pizza.
As I was talking to the lady at Mario's about our order, the power came back on. There was no need for the pizza order after all but hey, I already had them on them on the phone so what could I do. I completed the order. Our daughter was very excited. Our son was still asleep.
So I sent our daughter to wake our son in time for the pizza delivery. Pizza arrival is quite the spectacle at our house. The Beatles got a colder reception at JFK on their first trip to the U.S. than the pizza guy gets at our house. The delivery guy was laughing so much that I thought he was going to have trouble making change.
So with the arrival of dinner, the crisis was officially passed and I somehow managed to survive the horrible power outage of twenty ten.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Guitar Lesson
I am a terrible musician. I mean awful. I would say godawful but there is a band that I like by that name and I wouldn't want to insult them.
Perhaps if I actually practiced I might get better but with the two little ones, practice time is limited. As it stands now, when working on a song, I move from something that is incomprehensible to something that sounds like a song being played badly. I consider that progress.
Fortunately, what I lack in ability I can make up for in volume and distortion. So essentially, I play very bad, very loud music which is exactly what my wife would say I listen to.
I am proficient in badly playing acoustic and electric guitar, bass and a drum machine. Actually, I can get some really good beats out of the drum machine. So what if it came pre-programed, I am.the one who hit play.
Playing around with the guitar last night, I was joking about my playing when my daughter said, "Daddy, I like your playing even though you are not very good." I started to laugh.
She decided that what I needed were some lessons. Thing is, she had decided that she was the one to give the lessons. So she marched me over to where her guitar is kept. It's a small scale electric with a body shaped like a gold fish. She calls it her fishtar.
I asked her if she wanted me to plug her in. She did. So she sat on the floor with her fishtar coaching me how to play.
She said I needed some rock lessons and that I should play what she did. She would correct me if I played faster or slower than her. I had to match her rhythm or else she would stop the lesson and tell me to do what she was doing.
Once the lesson was over, she decided to play a little bit more for us. Fortunately, we had the foresight to get out the Flip and record a little of it. So for your enjoyment, click on the link below for a clip of Caelyn demonstrating how to rock.
Caelyn's Rock Demonstration
Perhaps if I actually practiced I might get better but with the two little ones, practice time is limited. As it stands now, when working on a song, I move from something that is incomprehensible to something that sounds like a song being played badly. I consider that progress.
Fortunately, what I lack in ability I can make up for in volume and distortion. So essentially, I play very bad, very loud music which is exactly what my wife would say I listen to.
I am proficient in badly playing acoustic and electric guitar, bass and a drum machine. Actually, I can get some really good beats out of the drum machine. So what if it came pre-programed, I am.the one who hit play.
Playing around with the guitar last night, I was joking about my playing when my daughter said, "Daddy, I like your playing even though you are not very good." I started to laugh.
She decided that what I needed were some lessons. Thing is, she had decided that she was the one to give the lessons. So she marched me over to where her guitar is kept. It's a small scale electric with a body shaped like a gold fish. She calls it her fishtar.
I asked her if she wanted me to plug her in. She did. So she sat on the floor with her fishtar coaching me how to play.
She said I needed some rock lessons and that I should play what she did. She would correct me if I played faster or slower than her. I had to match her rhythm or else she would stop the lesson and tell me to do what she was doing.
Once the lesson was over, she decided to play a little bit more for us. Fortunately, we had the foresight to get out the Flip and record a little of it. So for your enjoyment, click on the link below for a clip of Caelyn demonstrating how to rock.
Caelyn's Rock Demonstration
Friday, June 4, 2010
Sick at the Zoo
Today is painful. Today I feel like I used to feel every Saturday when I was younger and I swore I would never drink again. Sadly, I don't feel this way because I did drink again but because something I ate yesterday decided it didn't like me at about two am. I will spare you the details but I never really got to go back to sleep.
No day is good to get sick, especially with young children. They don't really understand when mommy and daddy are sick. They understand when they are sick, but not when mommy and daddy are. Even if they did understand, food still needs to be made, diapers changed, etc. There is no taking a sick day with children.
Today was also the day of Caelyn's school trip to the zoo. It is something she has been looking forward to for a while. There was no way I would deny her that.
I got up early to make sure I could keep food down, took some medicine to keep me upright and started getting things ready for the trip.
Turtleback Zoo is probably the perfect size for small kids. It is small but not too small. It only takes a couple of hours to see everything, more if you want to ride the train, the carousel or a pony. However, it was built on a hillside. So there I was pushing Caleb and his stroller up hills in 87 degree weather while Caelyn is running around with her classmates.
For her part, Caelyn had a lot of fun. She loves her schoolmates and running around the zoo with them was a great time for her. We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the zoo. I felt awful the whole time. All I wanted to do was go home and go to bed. However, watching her play with her friends and the smile on her face, there is no other place I would have chosen to be than right there.
No day is good to get sick, especially with young children. They don't really understand when mommy and daddy are sick. They understand when they are sick, but not when mommy and daddy are. Even if they did understand, food still needs to be made, diapers changed, etc. There is no taking a sick day with children.
Today was also the day of Caelyn's school trip to the zoo. It is something she has been looking forward to for a while. There was no way I would deny her that.
I got up early to make sure I could keep food down, took some medicine to keep me upright and started getting things ready for the trip.
Turtleback Zoo is probably the perfect size for small kids. It is small but not too small. It only takes a couple of hours to see everything, more if you want to ride the train, the carousel or a pony. However, it was built on a hillside. So there I was pushing Caleb and his stroller up hills in 87 degree weather while Caelyn is running around with her classmates.
For her part, Caelyn had a lot of fun. She loves her schoolmates and running around the zoo with them was a great time for her. We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the zoo. I felt awful the whole time. All I wanted to do was go home and go to bed. However, watching her play with her friends and the smile on her face, there is no other place I would have chosen to be than right there.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
A Central Park Kind of Day
Before we headed in, I found myself doing something I had never done before. I printed a map of the park. While I know my way around the park quite well, the maps I printed were of all the playgrounds and restrooms. Items that are very important when dealing with small children, especially with a child that waits to the last minute to tell anyone she needs to go.
Victorian Gardens is a small amusement park that is inside Wollman rink. For those who don't know, Wollman is an ice skating rink that is used throughout the winter. The place has 12 different rides geared toward small children.
After checking out several different rides, it was time for lunch. We headed to the food court. Caelyn was wearing what she calls the most beautiful shirt in the world, a pink Ramones t-shirt. Sammie and Tudie came in to the food court shortly after we sat down to eat. We had not seen their show yet. Caelyn had, however, seen a little of the act a few weeks before at the Tribeca Film Festival street fair. She wanted to go over to say hi and tell Tudie her dress was pretty.
Turns out Tudie is a Ramones fan and started talking to Caelyn about the band. When the conversation was over, Caelyn returned to the table for lunch. Shortly after Caelyn's return, I heard what appeared to be a rendition of Blitzkrieg Bop being played on the ukulele. The sound was coming from behind a curtained off area of the food court. I grabbed Caelyn and we went to check it out only to be met by Sammie and Tudie returning to the dining area from behind the curtain.
They had decided to work up an rendition of the song on the spot and came over to our table to sing it for Caelyn. So there we sat, enjoying every minute of two clowns playing and singing Blitzkrieg Bop for our daughter who was watching in awe. It was a great moment and I thank them for that.
Click here to see Sammie and Tudie sing Blitzkrieg Bop
After lunch it was off for more rides. As the spinning swings and the psychotic spinning tug boat had made me nauseous before we ate, I wanted nothing to do with them.
(According to Caelyn, it takes a lot of concentration to drive a truck with two steering wheels.)
Caelyn sat right up front. When it was time for audience volunteers, she was brought on stage with a couple of other children. She participated in plate spinning. She could barely control her excitement. A few times she was unable to control herself and she jumped up and down.
For anyone in the NYC area with small children, if you get a chance to see Sammie and Tudie, go see them. I am not just saying that because of the attention they gave my daughter. They had the kids in the audience laughing and yelling back and forth at the stage the whole time. Every child there looked as if they were having fun and many of them stayed after to hear Tudie read a story.
After the show, it was a few more rides then off to Hecksher playground. I won't give too many details other than it is a nice large playground, that and it borders a large area of climbing rocks. Caelyn headed to the rocks and spent about an hour climbing rock formations.
Finally it was time to leave. We stopped at an ice cream cart on the way out.
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