Sticky Icky Week

Monday (7/11) was a busy day for us. Caleb went to Sticky Icky camp in the morning at Imagine Studios. Nola and I picked him up at 11:30 and met Stacy and her kids at Mellow Mushroom for lunch.  (My review:  thumbs way down.)  After lunch, we made a quick Target trip & came home for Nola’s nap.  While Nola was napping, Caleb and I made lemonade popsicles and Shrinky Dinks.  Caleb was fascinated by both, but then decided to try on my rainboots with this swimsuit & goggles.  That was, um, interesting...

After nap, we met my friend Becky and her son Ethan for some pool time, then came home for dinner.  After dinner, we made shaving cream bags (ziploc bag with shaving cream and food coloring).  That activity didn’t last long, so I decided to make a bean tub for the kids to play in.  I put 2 bags of dry pinto beans in a plastic tub, buried some small toys and let the kids dig around in it.  They played for 30 minutes without a fuss, then played some more. 

Tuesday (7/12) was not a very good day.  It started off okay.  Caleb went to camp.  Nola and I ran some errands.  That’s when it turned sour.  I needed to run one last quick errand before we picked Caleb up, so we dashed into Gordman’s, looking for a swim shirt for Caleb.  He has been asking for one for weeks.  Nola was tired of running errands and getting pretty grumpy.  I tried putting her in the shopping cart seat and she screamed like I was killing her, so I carried her for a while.  When I stopped to look at something, I sat her down in the basket part of the cart and told her to sit down.  I turned my head for a split second and felt the cart move.  When I turned back around, she was bent over the end of the cart and flipped out, landing on her head on the concrete floor.  It probably took me half a second to scoop her up.  I checked her over and didn’t find any blood or obvious injury.  She was screaming at the top of her lungs, of course.  I carried her back out to the car and got her somewhat calmed down.  I drove (very shakily) to get Caleb.  When we got there, one of the other moms that I know was picking up her daughter.  I told her what had happened and she helped me reason that I needed to call the pediatrician’s office to find out what to do.  When we got out to the car, I called and the nurse told me I needed to take her to the ER.  Panicked, I left Rudy a message to call me and headed for the hospital.  After we checked in, I noticed that Rudy had called, so I called him back.  I told him what had happened and that I’d let him know when we were finished.  We were taken back to a room and I had to tell the story multiple times, feeling guiltier and guiltier about my huge mistake every time.  Caleb made certain to let the staff know it was my fault, which he had heard me tell Rudy on the phone.  The nurse and the nurse practitioner looked Nola over carefully, asked me lots of questions and then told me that she was going to be just fine.  She showed no signs of concussion or other brain injury.  I was instructed to take her home and watch her closely for 24 hours.  As we left the hospital, I praised God for her safety and knew that I had learned a lesson that I’ll never forget – use the seatbelts in the shopping cart, even if the child doesn’t like it. 
After lunch, I turned a movie on for Caleb and we spent the afternoon recuperating from our terrifying morning.  Poor Caleb was bored out of his mind, but he was patient and did a good job entertaining himself for the most part.

Wednesday (7/13) was a much better day.  Caleb had camp.  When Nola and I picked him up, we took him to get a haircut and then went to lunch.  It was raining for the first time in a long time, so the temperatures were bearable.  After lunch, we had a rainy day inside – watching movies & being lazy.  Wednesday night, we had dinner at Catfish Hole with the band camp staff.

Thursday (7/14), Nola and I went to Gymboree before we picked up Caleb. 

Rudy had a short day on Friday and knew that I needed some time to get some things done by myself, so he took the kids for the afternoon.  That morning, I had taken Nola for a hearing evaluation (a separate post about that to come).  In the afternoon, I went to Hobby Lobby to get some things I needed for some projects I’ve been working on and then came home to work on the projects.  I got some things framed and even did some scrapbooking.  Rudy took the kids to Tanyard Creek to splash and play.  The report I got was that Caleb became an expert crawdad catcher and Nola picked up every rock in the creek.  They brought home pizza and we played outside for a while before bedtime.  Once the kids were in bed, I worked some more on scrapbooking.  I got all of 2009 finished, closing out another album!  Now, I’m only a year and a half behind.  Yikes!