Everyone’s got a story. . .

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The more people I tell about little Charlotte’s thumb, the more stories I get back about  severed appendages.  I think everyone knows someone who has severed a finger or a toe.  In my informal study, I’d say fingers are the most commonly severed appendage.  I get at least 3 or 4 finger stories to every toe story.  I suspect I had an unusually high toe severing sample so the odds of getting a story about a severed finger are likely even greater than that.

Charlotte is still doing quite well.  I attempted my first re-bandaging of 12.7.08 Isaac, Charlotte, and Nicole (2)Charlotte’s thumb on Sunday and failed.  The bandage was stuck to the wound and I ended up taking another trip the ER to have them help me for fear that I’d make the injury worse by ripping it open or detaching the stitches. Injuries are crucial especially when it comes to brain injury in such cases it is always advisable to contact attorneys at earliest as Orange County suffered a brain injury helped to claim compensation. I don’t deal well with pain and bloody gross looking wounds particularly if it’s my children.  As I watched and tried to comfort her, I started to feel sick and broke into a cold sweat.   I’ve never actually passed out, but I suspect I was on that path.  The only time she complains about pain is when the bandage is off or coming off or if her thumb is pulled when dressing or undressing.  she is very careful with her thumb throughout the day to avoid getting it wet or irritated.

Tonight I succeeded in re-bandaging her thumb on my own and the wound is looking much better.  If you want to see how the wound looked tonight, click here.

Posted in Kids

67 Years Ago

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At certain times of year I’m often preoccupied about people or places in my past.  In the very early spring (and sometimes winter), I have very specific memories of Asbury Park, NJ.  In the hot summers, I think about Camden and Bordentown NJ.  As August winds down to fall, I think about Glacier National Park, a particular rest stop on I-84 in Oregon, and Penndel, PA.

Times of year have me thinking about people, too.  I remember my grandparents all the time, but I especially think of my mom’s dad in August and my dad’s dad in early December.

Today is December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day.  For my family, that’s an auspicious day.  My grandfather was serving as a Boatswain’s Mate on the USS Nevada that morning.  The story actually has him in the shower at 7:48 AM local, which resulted in him fighting the first wave with just a towel.  In spite of hits from six bombs (at least) and a torpedo, only 60 men were killed. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/USS_Nevada_damage_to_forecastle_deck_due_to_bomb_blast%27.jpg

One random bomb hit resulted in boatswain’s whistles being scattered across the deck, of which my grandfather collected Boatswain's whistleseveral.  I’m not sure who has them these days, but they’re among my aunts and uncles somewhere.

During the attack, he made at least one run under fire forward to the anchor lines to assist in getting the ship under way.  The Nevada was the only battleship able to get underway that morning.  She was still heavily damaged, and my grandfather was transferred to the USS Indianapolis to escort a convoy to Melbourne shortly after, thus missing the Battle of Guadalcanal.  From there, it was on to Adak to pilot crash boats for the army, and then back home to the Seattle area.

Image:USS Nevada temporarily beached on hospital point 925AM NARA-80-G-19940.jpg

I think about these things today, and think about my generation.  We’re a pretty soft bunch; my grandparents fought the great wars of the last century, suffered privation in the Great Depression, and the country’s culture take a turn for the stupid in the 1960s and 1970s.  I worry very much about the pampered and complaining people my age (I’m 31) if we’re faced with crises of similar magnitude.  People have compared December 7th with September 11th.  I kind of laugh about that; after Pearl Harbor, the nation woke up.  After September 11th, nothing changed.  We don’t even know who to fight, and when we do fight, we’re ready to quit within months. 

I hope I’m tough enough; I hope that if we can keep our past in our minds, we can help prepare for challenges in the future.  I hope my children can remember these things, and that it will help them be tough too.

*Family, if you see any points I’ve missed above, don’t hesitate to correct.  I wrote this from my memory, which is not always perfect.

Posted in Family History

“I do not have a hurt bumb [thumb]”

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Adults can follow auto injury tips, but that does not work well with kids. However,Charlotte seems to be coping with her injury quote well.  The next morning when I 12.3.08 Charlotte entered their room, Isaac and Charlotte were having the following argument:

Isaac:  “you have a hurt thumb”

Charlotte:  “I do NOT have a hurt bumb [thumb]”

Which was ironic because I stayed up all night fretting that she’d wake up in pain before I could fill her pain medication prescription the next morning. If The first day I kept her medicated until bedtime, possibly more out of my fear than her actual pain.  At bedtime, she said her thumb didn’t hurt.  The next day I asked her repeatedly throughout the day if her thumb hurt.  Again, I was more concerned than she was because she answered no each time except once at 3:00 so I gave her medication then.  She didn’t need another dose all day. Also, if you need attorney’s help for denied social security disability claim, you can check it out here!

Today she had the thumb re-bandaged for the first time.  It’s still a gruesome looking injury and after looking at it for a few minutes I felt a little sick. Not all injuries require a personal injury lawyer Osborne Law Firm, P.C., but they can be scary. The top of her thumb to past her stitches was very white (the kind of white you get when you’ve had a wet bandage on too long), the nail area was bumpy with stitches and dried blood and the P1040115base of her thumb was purple and bruised (probably from the shots used to numb her thumb).  Charlotte whimpered and wiggled as they took the bandages off.  They had to  take off several layers of gauze with dried blood which agitated her injury repeatedly. If you need help with medical bills after an auto accident, then you can check it out here!  Then they washed her thumb and had the doctor look at the injury.  The good news is that it’s not infected and seems to be healing ok. But if it is no healed, it is advised to contact an experienced lawyer for DUI claims or personal injury claims. She was eager to have her thumb re-bandaged.  I’m not entirely sure if the sight of it brought back painful memories or if it was just that it didn’t hurt when it was immobilized with gauze and tape, but as soon as she was re-bandaged she felt much better and stopped whimpering.I don’t know why, but the whole tension reminded me of an accident and lawyers for traffic accident victims.  She’ll need to have her thumb bandaged for about three weeks to give the fractured bone time to heal, but the stitches should dissolve in two.

On a side note, Charlotte does not like having her hair washed in the sink, but I’m grateful for the brand new sink with detachable nozzle for washing her hair.

Posted in Kids

Count Your Blessings

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It’s been a draining week, with one (maybe two) more workdays left.  I don’t mean to gripe about too much work, especially when some Fortune 500 firm is in the news every day laying off workers.  I’m just tired. 

Each night, I go through a bedtime ritual with the kids.  Kathleen (sometimes I do this step if Nicole is fussy) gets them in the pajamas and their teeth brushed, then it’s off to their bedroom for scripture time.  We read one column from the Book of Mormon; Charlotte and Isaac split a verse (I prompt them through it).  Then it’s time to pray.  Boys pray on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, girls on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  On Sundays it’s whoever I feel like picking.

After prayer, we say "good night!" to Mom, and she goes off to put Nicole to bed.  Then it’s time for stories.  Usually I’ll read two books Isaac chooses, and sometimes on top of that some of Charlotte’s board books.  I try to read very dramatically.  Recent library favorites were "That Pesky Dragon", "19 Girls and Me", "Who Hops", and "Naughty Little Monkeys" (even though I’m worried that one gives them ideas.  Another weird one that Isaac likes is called "Little Pig is Capable".  Yeah, not the most dynamic title, but not a bad little book.

Once stories are done, it’s time for the kids to talk to Heavenly Father.  They have some weird little prayers, but I try to let them say whatever they’re thinking.  A common theme is being thankful for everyone’s bed: "Thank Thee for the flower bed; thank Thee for the car bed; thank Thee for the circle bed; thank Thee for Nicole’s bed. . ."

Then they tuck in.  Isaac is very picky: the duck blanket from Grandma goes first, then the sheet and bedspread, then the extra car blanket.  This pickiness is from the boy who used to insist on sleeping on the table in his room, or on the floor:

Once everyone is in bed, we always say the same thing: "I’ll see you in the morning!  I love you!  Good night!"  Sometimes I’ll add further recommendations: "Stay in bed!", or  "Don’t let the tigers bite!" or other good advice.  If I miss one of the main three lines, Isaac will yell, "Dad!  You forgot to say ‘see you in the morning’!"  Then we have to say the whole thing over.

So it’s been a tough week.  We’re worried about the future, money, society.  We had our little girl in the emergency room.  Work has been both busy and a little aggravating this week.  The nights are longer and colder.  In my better moments, when things seem tough, I remember to count my blessings.  In fact, I might even sing the old Irving Berlin song to myself.  It’s probably one of his best, actually.  So this post, which I think started as a rant, kind of turned into counting my blessings instead.  Here’s a link to a great version of the song.

I think sometimes this time of year can be a little too much for people.  I hope we all get a chance to be grateful this Christmas.

Posted in Kids

Don’t Play with the Door

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I have a pet peeve.  Periodically, one child will run down the hall (usually carrying something another child was playing with) and slam the door, leaving a sibling crying in the hall.  I hate it when the children play with the door.  All that yelling has never resulted in a change in behavior, though.

Tonight, the kids were playing a game with the bedroom door, and getting yelled at for it.  Isaac slammed the door, and Charlotte’s thumb got caught.  The damage was pretty bad; the tip of her thumb was just dangling, and she was in some real pain.  She’s a stoic little soul, 2008-12-02 Charlotte at the hospital 001though.  The first emergency room wouldn’t take our insurance, so we had to go to the next place.  Makes me glad we’re not out in the sticks.  After the first burst of tears, Charlotte was very calm, if maybe a little scared.

**Grizzly Details Warning**

When they gave Charlotte the shots to numb her thumb, it stung quite a bit.  I’m a dad, so I’m not ashamed to say I cried just a little with her.  I love my little girl.  I held her other hand and put my head close to hers and comforted her as best I could.  Kathleen sang to her and played a game finding the shapes in the room.  Once the anesthetic kicked in, she was very calm.

The tip of her thumb was nearly completely severed, about halfway through where the nail is.  The nail was lost; the doctor says it will probably grow back a little funny.  The bone was broken (just right at the tip), which says a lot about how tough my little girl is.  The doctor stitched it back together, and the tip will probably heal just fine.  He used dissolving sutures so she won’t have to have them removed.  Charlotte watched the whole procedure, and was very still and quiet.

The discharge papers classify it as "Near Amputation Digit; Fracture of Phalanx of Finger".

**End Grizzly Details**

When everything was done, she said, "I have no more hurt thumb."  They put a big blue bandage on her, gave her some antibiotics, and sent us home.  Once we were on our way, she perked right up.  We had a story, a hug, and a prayer, and she’s asleep in bed.  I’ll delay piano lessons for approximately four weeks.

2008-12-02 Charlotte at the hospital 002

Posted in Kids, News

Motivators

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Krista and I decided we wanted to send my mom a package to make working in my dad’s office less depressing so we decided to make her those motivational posters with the word and then quote, only we thought we’d select pictures of our kids.  We had some difficulty figuring out a good way to make them until I discovered this neat little tool.  Here are the results of our work:   (If you don’t see a slide show of pictures you may have to actually go to our website instead of reading our posts in a blog reader)

Click here to see the ones Krista made.

Posted in Kids

Candy Confessions

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I just can’t bring myself to allow my kids control over a large supply of candy so this is  what I do:

On Halloween I usually confiscate all of the children’s candy within an hour of our arrival home.  I allow them a small amount of time to gorge, but I start to fret about 3.23.08 Isaac (3)them eating too much candy and remove it as soon as I can manage.  I put the candy in a container and they earn pieces for doing chores at a rate of one candy for every 4 chores.

On Easter I do the same thing, I remove it as soon as I possibly can.  One time I was so reluctant to give them candy throughout the year, that when the next Easter rolled around I still had candy from the previous Easter.  I actually reused the candy and then reconfiscated it.

I have even taken away candy that they came home from a birthday party with and then made them earn the candy back at the rate and in the manner listed above (4 chores =1 candy).

For the last few months, I’ve even made them earn their fruitsnacks?!  Have I become overcontrolling?  Or do other moms do this too?

Posted in General

A Conversation with Charlotte

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I decided to make this a separate blog post because I didn’t want to make an 11.16.08 Charlotte (1)excessively long blog post.

Here’s some of the conversation Charlotte and I had as she fell asleep in my arms this evening

Charlotte:  "I’m Charlotte."

me:  "Yes, you’re Charlotte."

Charlotte:  "Nicole is not Charlotte.  Nicole is a baby."

me:  "Yes, Nicole is a baby."

Charlotte:  "Mom, I’m not bad, bad."

me: "You’re my good little girl and I love you."

Charlotte:  "My eyes open and close. . . Mouths open and close. . . .Eyes open and close. . .but eyebrows don’t open and close. . . and doors open and close. . .Boys don’t open and close."

me:  "Do girls open and close?"

Charlotte:  "no"

me:  "Girls open and close their mouths"

Charlotte:  "Mom, I’m Charlotte"

Posted in Kids

I’m Charlotte

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That’s her favorite phrase.  Throughout the day she’ll just say "I’m Charlotte."  During dinner, when she plays, as I hug her good-night.  I wonder how much of her behavior iP1030970-1 s because she’s Charlotte and how much of it can be attributed to being 2.

I love her dearly, but she is the most stubborn, strong willed little girl that I know.  The other day she turned a 2-minute time out into a 20 minute time out because she refused to say sorry.  After the timer went off, I asked her to say sorry.  She refused.  I told her if she said sorry she could come down.  She only said "I want out of time out" (notice how many more words that is–sorry would have been much shorter).  The conversation continued in this way.  I periodically checked to see if she was ready to say sorry and it was about 20 minutes later when she finally mumbled a barely audible sorry.  The next time she earned a time out, she did the exact same thing.  Luckily today she apologized much quicker.

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Posted in Kids

Miscellaneous Cat

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Isaac saw this kitten through the glass door in the kitchen and asked if he could pet it.  I P1030956 told him it wasn’t a good idea since we didn’t know the cat.  He told me that he wanted to name the cat Eustace.  I said ok.  He asked "now I pet the cat?  Because now I know the cat."  The cat looked friendly.  It was rubbing up against the glass and was not frothing at the mouth, so I let him go outside to pet the cat.  He said "Mom, lets show that cat how I ride my bike."    Since we had to leave soon I dissuaded him from that idea and we went inside.  His next comment was "that cat is cold, we should use my map book to take the cat to it’s home"  (his map book is a small Rand McNally road map of each of the United States).

Here’s an unrelated question from a few moments later:  "Mom, is a hospital a kind of dentist?"  This comment is way out in left field, we hadn’t been talking about hospitals or dentists.

Posted in Kids

To Cousin Joshua

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The kids got a letter from their cousin today.  Isaac was excited to write back.  Here is what he said and the responses from his sisters:

Dear Joshua-

I want to tell you about everything that we do. Like when we made a sugar mess today. We were spilling it. Mom was not happy.

I like big boy legos. I maybe would like different little blocks. I like to help my mother. I want to write all the things we do, me and Charlotte. . . play with big boy legos. . and playing with the building set. . .and um watching Nicole and. . um doing everything that I do.

I want to write about I can come there. I can’t get out the door without my P1030881mother. I can’t put the big boy legos on the floor.

I want you to write all that tigers do. They do. . Killing things, and eating the things that they killed, and kill things for dinners, and wake up in the nighttime and eat kids when they are naughty in the night and how they do everything that they do. How they get on trains is by scratching and breaking them. Tigers swim in water. Kids can’t be awake in the night. No letting Joshua go out of his bed in the night and his mom will look at this letter and not let her kid not to, not let her kid not to do that.

Lets tell them the mommy and daddy part about you guys. Tell them about when mom P1030850 and dad got married and how Nicole looks at everything and how Nicole touches the floor sitting like that and how she plays with the toys on that and how she does everything and how she bees nice to Zebras and nice to Zebras like that. The Nicole part is talking about how babies do and the Nicole part is how much babies do.

I want to do how our family does. Tell how much we do. Tell them that I say what time will it be the last day. Our family does um, our family says different kinds of words. And like to not get sick and fat, but I want candy. And I like to put my fingers like this way right between my buttons (on his computer).

I like to drink water. Now the milk part. That we drink milk at every dinner time. That’s the whole milk part. Then we get out of the milk part. When you’re all finished typing it you will close the milk part.

From,

Isaac

 

Nicole says: “ahhh”. . .drool. . .. squeal. . .smile. . .”grrrr”P1030854

 

Mom: Charlotte do you want to write a letter to Joshua?

Charlotte: I have to close all of them

Mom: Do you want to write a letter

Charlotte: I will close the window like that.

Posted in Kids

4 Things

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OK, I’ll jump on the meme.  I’m the mystery blog reader Laresa referenced, I suppose.

4 Jobs I’ve had

  • I worked for Superdell at Totally Awesome Computers (true story)
  • I worked for eBay in the glory days
  • I planted trees for one long hot summer
  • I made pizzas in my dad’s pizza restaurant

4 TV Shows

4 Favorite Foods

4 Places to Visit

4 Movies I Will Admit I Like

  • Unforgiven
  • Starship Troopers (I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t care)
  • Three Amigos
  • Rushmore

4 Favorite US Cities (as of today)

  • New York
  • Seattle
  • Knoxville (TN)
  • Monticello (UT)

4 Most Important Things

  • Kathleen
  • Isaac
  • Charlotte
  • Nicole

I choose to tag no one, but I invite Kathleen to make a list.

Posted in General

The penetrating message of President-Elect Obama

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On election day we walked in the house after voting and Isaac announced with great concern that "the naughty don’t want Obama to vote." We’re not Obama supporters and 11.2.08 Isaac-1we haven’t really been talking politics much around the kids (that I can think of) or listening to much political stuff so I was surprised by the comment.  The next day at the library he pulled a book off the shelf about Kwanzaa, when I asked if he wanted a book on Christmas, he said "no" and insisted we check out the Kwanzaa one.  Are these unrelated? Or has Obama somehow gotten his message to the white 4-year olds from Utah demographic.

Here’s an unrelated but amusing election day quote from Isaac:

I let Isaac and Charlotte help me vote by pushing the correct buttons.  The sticker lady gave me extra stickers for Isaac and Charlotte.  After giving him his sticker, Isaac said "Nicole can’t vote because she would spit up on her sticker?"

Posted in Kids

Prayers

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Charlotte has become more independent in her prayers lately.  10.11.08 Charlotte (6)Instead of just repeating the same phrases over or waiting for help, she has started adding new ones.  Here are a few favorites from this week:  "Bless us to have good dreams.  Bless us to have another good dream."  "Bless that all my dreams will work."

Last week Isaac said "Thank the that I’m not worried that I’ll never see my aunt Krista again."

There are probably more amusing lines, but I can’t currently think of anymore from recent prayers.

Posted in Kids

Pseudostrabismus

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"What it is:  Pseudostrabismus (soo-doh-strah-BIS-mus) refers to eyes that appear to point in different directions, but actually do not."

11.7.08 Nicole (2)-1My mother pointed out to me that in some pictures it looked like one of Nicole’s eyes was turning in.  I asked the pediatrician about this and after examining her eyes for several minutes he determined that she has pseudoesotropia (essentially that nothing is wrong and it’s more of a visual illusion created by her facial structures.)

"In pseudoesotropia, the eyes appear to be crossed but are actually straight. This common condition in infants and young children is generally due to the infant’s facial structures. The wide bridge of the nose and small folds of eyelid skin on the nasal side of the eye contribute to this appearance by covering the "white" of the eye. This especially becomes apparent when the infant looks to the right or the left. As the infant’s facial structures mature, this appearance of crossing will improve and often disappear."

Click here for the source for the above quotations

Posted in Kids

Kindness is. . .

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10.27.08 Isaac, Charlotte, Sam, and LillyWe invited our good friends the Kelsons over for family night.  The lesson was on how  Jesus taught us to be kind and love others.  I shared a story during the lesson about Jesus healing a blind man.  The lesson ended with a paper puzzle covering a picture of Jesus.  The kids were required to pick up a puzzle piece and tell one way they can be kind.  The responses were not what I expected.  Here are the ones I remember:

"not hitting"

"not punching or kicking"

"not poking"

"not making someone blind" by Isaac.  I tried to get him to come up with something you can do instead of something that you can avoid doing by saying "what if a friend was coming over?  Can you think of one thing you could do to be kind to your friend?"  His response:  "not make my friend blind."

Not exactly what I planned to teach about kindness, but an interesting view of the 4-year-old-mind.

Posted in Friends

Halloween

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10.31.08 Isaac (1)-1 Yes, I know I’m behind, but better late then never right.  We had a busy day but it was fun.  I do have a picture of all three of my kids in their costumes, but I don’t think I look very good in it so I refuse to post it here.  We started the day at preschool group then we came home for lunch and naps.  Aunt Krista and baby Paul came over and joined us in a tour of Zach’s office (they always over decorate).  After collecting candy there we came home and changed then headed out to dinner at Tucanos with extended family.  When we finished eating all the meat we could, we came home and the kids changed into PJs and handed out candy before going to bed.

Posted in Kids

My Voting Playlist

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So I went to vote this morning, and I kid you not, the songs that came up random while I voted were as follows:

I think there’s a deeper meaning in this.  The Candidate of Change isn’t change at all, but more Carter-esque nonsense.  It’s "the same old song", if you will.  I’m pretty sick of Chris Cannon, so "Beat It".  "Moby Dick" has some sort of fruitless quest or something going on.  "Careless Love" applies to the dimmer conservatives who are under Obama’s spell, and "Fascination Street" to the Democrats.  I think.

So, my votes.  Mostly Republicans, one write-in, one Democrat, one Constitution party, "No" on retaining all judges (force of habit; one unfair ticket, and you can all get re-appointed). 

The write-in may require some explanation.  We had the choice for our governor of John Huntsman, who is a grade-A RINO, Superdell (I’m a former employee, and can verify that he’s insane), and a Democrat promising free health care for everyone.  My choice?

I wrote in "Thomas S. Monson".

Posted in General

Please use the Sink?

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sink It’s a little hard to read, but Zach found this sign on the Urinal at the local Iceberg.  Ironically, instead of referring patrons to the nearby toilet, this sign suggests they use the sink.

Posted in General
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