It's Broken!

Last Tuesday, my daughter Arielle fell from the monkey bars and hurt her arm. As you can tell by the blog post title, it was broken, But we waited 2 days to see if it was healing. It didn't bruise, just remained red and swollen. So we decided to take her to the doctor as a precaution even though she said it was starting to feel better.
Jeremy was not happy that I asked him to go and take off from work. He thought it was a waste of time. I made an appointment at the pediatrician at 4:30. They said they'd send Arielle for an x-ray if necessary. I know now that we should have gone straight to an orthopedist, but at the time the pediatrician seemed like the correct doctor. So by 5pm they were seen at the pediatrician. Then, they went upstairs to the x-ray place and they got the scans which showed she broke her ulna and possibly the radius as well near her wrist. Jeremy then had to go back to the pediatrician who called the hospital and scheduled the orthopedist there to see her and give her a cast. They stopped at the house to get dinner and went on their way. When they got to the hospital, the ER gave her a temporary cast and told them to go see an ortho in the morning!
Luckily, Jeremy was persistent and insisted that the doctor on call try to reach the ortho. After all, we already paid two $20 copays and an ER copay of $50 without the correct treatment! The doctor agreed to call the ortho and locate him. (The pediatrician had supposedly called ahead and he said he was at the hospital.) Finally, the ortho came and gave Arielle a cast from just below the elbow up to her fingers.
Arielle was really well behaved, considering the pain, the effort of the day, and the fact that they only arrived home at 11pm! She even went to school the next day (it was Friday so a 1/2 day).
Arielle was concerned that everyone would be staring at her. But in the end, what really got to her was telling the story over and over again to everyone who asked her "what happened?" (A week later, people are still asking!)
On Sunday we took out all our permanent markers and she carried them around asking her grandparents, cousins, and friends to write on her cast.
Arielle needs some assistance with daily living needs now including dressing, washing, bathing, and sometimes eating. She is able to hold a pencil (though not very well) so she has kept up with classwork and homework.
A week has passed so far. We look forward to getting the okay to have it removed. Our checkup is in 3 weeks.

Back to School Madness

Back to school went off without a hitch. The kids love their teachers, adjusted well and didn't complain or cry at drop off (yes, even the 2 year old!). Wednesday was the practice run with kindergarten orientation and a 3 hour day at first grade. Then, Thursday I had all 3 kids off to their respective schools. I dropped off 2 of them and the 3rd was picked up by her carpool.

On Friday I ran 2 carpool runs- to first grade and to preschool. Kayla, the kindergartener was again picked up by her carpool.

Friday was quite stressful. I was convinced it would be impossible to make 3 carpool runs in one day, a feat I hope to accomplish Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. On Friday, the first grade drop-off line was LONG, to say the least. It took me 10 minutes to get through the lot. The school makes rules to expedite drop-off, but for some reason the parents were not abiding to these rules. For example, all cars are to come from one direction so that no one should be turning left into the lot. The cars trying to make that left not only added to the length of time to get into the lot, but blocked the exit for the cars who needed to turn left after drop-off.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the kids had lined up indoors due to the weather. On Friday they were finally going to be lining up outside. My daughter looked quite confused when I dropped her off as she did not know where to go and I of course directed her to go inside as she did the previous days. I only realized later that she was supposed to line up outside. And then I got emotional.

On my way to do the next pickup (preschool carpool) I was already stressed and late and I felt terrible for making my friend late too.

My only thoughts were:
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO 3 CARPOOLS WHEN 2 ARE HARD ENOUGH? WHY CAN'T THERE BE BUSES?

Today is Monday and you will be happy to hear that I left 5 minutes earlier to the first-grade carpool and it was a breeze! I was in and out in 2 minutes and back on time to pick up carpool # 2. I had plenty of time to do another carpool (the kindergarten run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) before driving to preschool. Today I restored calmness to my back to school madness and hope that tomorrow proves easy.

I have committed myself to 3 morning carpools and I think (and pray!) they just might work out!

Raising Feet

My mother in law has a famous saying...
"I didn't raise children, I raised feet!"
Buying shoes is a chore for me, especially because there are no local children's shoe stores.
My beautiful 5 year old Arielle keeps trying to convince me that she has outgrown her shoes and that she NEEDS new ones. According to my not so expert training and unbelievable thumbing skills, she still has room to grow.
Last time we went to get shoes (3 weeks ago), I had to buy my 4 yo Kayla 2 new pairs, sneakers and dressy shoes, because her feet genuinely grew. While we were there, we had them fit the 2 yo Tzvi, who was just growing out of his shoes. We bought him a pair as well so that we would not have to come back to the shoe store again. We had gone to the mall where we parked on the exact opposite side from the stride rite location. We finally reached the store and accomplished by purchasing 3 pairs! Arielle was sized and it was determined that her shoes still fit. Relief for me, disappointment for her!
But not more than two weeks later, she is trying to convince me to get her a new pair anyway!
Am I raising children, or feet?