Hunter's Foot is Free!

Hunter got his cast off this past Tuesday. It must have felt good because he was wiggling his toes a lot!

We went in for the appointment and Drew saw the saw sitting on the counter in the exam room. He kinda freaked out a little, but I told him to stay quiet and not make a big deal so that Hunter would be okay with it. It's nice having a 2 year old go through all of this because he doesn't really know what a saw is, so he doesn't know to be freaked out by it. Besides his little toy saws at home, he hasn't seen one in action yet.


The doctor came in and Hunter jumped right up on the table and stuck his leg out. He knows what's going on! We kept asking him if he was ready to get his cast off. I think he was kind of growing fond of it. He wasn't too sure about getting it taken off.


The doctor barely sawed through it, just enough to crack it open. Hunter sat very still. He was interested in what they were doing to him. They sawed through one of the signatures and he didn't like that too much. He pointed at it and said "Madelyn?" Yes, honey, they sawed through Madelyn. Good thing we took pictures of it before we went in. I was not about to keep the thing! I have more trash in my house than I care to move again. I am not interested in moving a cast, too.


When the cast came off, his little foot was so dirty! I had used a baby wipe at bath time to get up in his toes, but there was dirt and gook stuck way up there. The nurse, who's obviously done this before, had a dish of warm soapy water waiting. Hunter thought it was funny to have his foot washed somewhere that wasn't his bathtub.


She asked me to pick him up and take him to the x-ray machine. I set him down by the machine and he knew just what to do. He placed his foot in the right spot and stood very still. He's an expert at this x-ray thing by now.


His little bones looked good. The fracture was healed. We go back in a few weeks for one last x-ray.


Hunter complained about some pain the past two nights so I gave him a little Motrin at bedtime both nights. He's walking a little gingerly on it, but the doctor said that's to be expected. It's not that he's adjusting to walking without a cast. He adjusted to that right away. It's that his foot is a little tender still. Sturdy tennis shoes help ease the pain a little more than his bare feet do, though.


So proud of my little guy. He's such a go-with-the-flow kind of kid. He does not get upset easily and he's very trusting when I tell him it's going to be okay. He's done very well through this whole thing from the 9 hours in the ER (never complaining once), to getting his cast off two days ago.

Earthy Pictures for Earth Day

I've been in a nature picture taking mood lately, so here are some fun, earthy pics for Earth Day!

Birthday Party Southern Style

Yesterday we went to the cutest birthday party for one of our favorite little girls. She's in our playgroup and all the kids just love playing with her. She's a little shy and can be quiet, but get her going and she can almost keep up with the Chaos Kids.

The theme was alligator, the colors were pink and green, and the food.....

Crawfish!

Living in Louisiana for a year and a half now, I've seen plenty of people at festivals and restaurants eating off plates piled high with these little mudbugs, but I had not yet tried them. Until yesterday.

Louisa and Drew put a handful on their plates, along with a few alligator shaped peanut butter sandwiches. They have tried crawfish before, and didn't mind them. Hunter was excited about putting crawfish on his plate, but lost interest when he saw how much work it was to get just a little meat out of the tail. And frankly, so did I! But I ate my fair share. I ate all that was on my plate, Drew's plate, and some extras that a friend piled on me. They tasted like shrimp. Spicy shrimp.

You snap the tail off to get just a little meat out, so it's a lot of work and I knew I was never going to get full on them. But, it was a fun experience. It was neat to sit with southern families and share in their tradition. (Although I was NOT about to suck the claws or the head like true Cajuns do!) The family of the birthday girl admits this was the first crawfish boil they've hosted, but being from the south they are not new to eating it!

After getting our fill of crawfish, and playing on the playground, it was cake time. And what's a southern style, alligator themed birthday without the alligator king cake? A king cake is a mardi gras tradition. It's usually filled with cream and/or fruit. And this has to be one of the cutest alligators I've ever seen. His name was Gaston. I say "was" because of course Gaston is no more!

We had a birthday party last weekend, a birthay party this weekend, and a huge family fun day with our playgroup next weekend. All at the same lake, appropriately named Alligator Lake, all with the same friends, and all at the same picnic spot. An interesting coincidence.

Deployment Gremlins and Bubble Pictures

The Deployment Gremlins gave me a run for my money the past few days. They strike weekly in our house. There's always something that happens that would never happen if Husband weren't deployed. Keys gone missing, keys locked in truck with $20 worth of fast food going bad (this week), not getting a bill in the mail until it's way overdue, a bedroom door coming completely off its hinges, both bathtubs leaking, a flea infestation, being so sick for two months straight I couldn't function, Hunter breaking his foot and the fun 9 hour ER trip.... the list goes one.
Deployments Gremlins are a twisted version of Murphy's Law. Instead of, Whatever can go wrong will, it's Whatever can go wrong will wait until the husband leaves... and then will.

On a happier note, we've had gorgeous weather lately. The boys and I get out almost every afternoon for some ball playing, bubble blowing, bike riding fun. And on that note, I leave you with some fun bubble pictures we took today (after the nice MP got the truck unlocked for me so I could get the already-bad fast food and Hunter's carseat out) .

{I love the look on Hunter's face in this picture! Sheer excitement!}

{The bubble popped right on his face!}

{Giant bubble coming from my wand,

it appears as if Hunter is caught in it.}

{The bubbles are chasing Hunter}

{Look in to my bubble tunnel... he's hypnotized.}

{Through the Bubble Wand!}

what kind?

what kind of computer did I get? someone asked.
well, THIS kind, of course!

I NEED MY INTERNET!!

The last post I made on my blog is kind of ironic. I turned off my computer last week for Earth Hour, and that's the last time I saw him alive. The computer that is. He didn't turn back on again; "crashed" would be the term.
I spent the last week with no computer and no internet access. I was going insane! Do you realize how many times I need to hop online for something? I never realized until I was without for a week! Recipes, addresses, pictures, friends, volunteer work, school.... every time I turned around I needed to get online for.... *something*!
I finally got a new computer ordered on Friday and they said it would be here Monday or Tuesday. In real time that means Tuesday, or possibly even Wednesday. Thank the Lord it came Tuesday. I was having PMS! PMS over a stupid computer and some internet. I felt completely shut off from the world when I couldn't just hop on and email my family in the middle of the afternoon, or check in on all my online friends, or print Drew up one more homeschool worksheet because he blew through his activities faster than I thought he would. When Hunter got his hard cast last week, I had to run over to my friend's house just so I could email everyone the picture of him smiling widely, showing off his green cast.
What I did do instead was cooking, baking, reading, crafts, and giving the kids 100% of my attention all day long. I got a lot of cleaning done (not enough to invite my mother-in-law over yet, though!) So today, when the UPS guy delivered that wonderful little box, I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story when he finally gets his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring in the mail. I ran inside, tore it open, hooked it up and.... this is where I've been ever since! (Trust me, the kids didn't even notice I was gone!) And unlike Ralphie, I'm not disappointed!