Keegan's first ER visit

So we have had quite the week here. On Friday the drier broke down so we ended up shopping for a new drier. On the way to play Dungeons and Dragons on Saturday the tire went flat on our car. I am thinking that that's enough for this week; should be smooth sailing from here on out.

Then I get the dreaded call...from daycare. "Hi, Keegan had an accident and you need to take him to the ER." Ends up Keegan was running and smacked his little head on the corner of a table and ripped a dime size hole into his forehead. They were having a lot of trouble stopping the bleeding.

So into frantic mode at work. I work 40 minutes away from daycare so I call my mom who lives 5 minutes away. She takes off to pick Keegan up, I leave work and start on the way to the ER to meet them there. I call Lyle too; he decides to meet us there. I call my boss and let him know I am going to be in the ER and won't be back until tomorrow.

Lyle and I get there and my mom pulls in right after. Keegan has band-aids over his forehead and doesn't look too bad; he's a bit pale and he looks a bit upset. We rush into the ER sign him in and wait. 20 minutes later we get to go into registration. The band-aids have pretty much done all they can so we are blotting blood off as is drips out from under the band-aids. They finally call us back into the room.

20 minutes more pass as we watch PBS on the TV there. I am thrilled there is a TV; I can't imagine what we would have done otherwise. Keegan is chilling on grandma's lap; he is so happy to sit with grandma. Then the doctor appears and they take off the band-aids. My first chance to see the wound. It is a dime-sized hole; you can see his forehead bone underneath. I start to get faint and have to sit down. I am not sure why, this stuff doesn't normally bother me. I mean I worked at the vet's for 3 years and saw many things worse than this. But it is Keegan, so I guess that's the difference. Dr. applies a numbing gel to the cut. Keegan is supposed to lie down with pressure on the wound for 20 minutes while the gel takes effect.

I am happy there is a TV. Keegan lies on Lyle on the bed while Lyle put pressure on the wound. Time passes. The Dino Train show ends and Sesame Street starts. More time passes. 40 minutes to be exact. The nurse brings in the suture cart and asks Keegan what kind of Popsicle he would like. That gets his attention. Gma and I exclaim over all the really cool things in Sesame Street. Finally the doctor comes back.

He wants to know if he should put Keegan in a restraining papoose. I tell him no, let's give it a shot without. So they clean up the wound, leave Keegan laying on Lyle, and Gma takes one hand and I take the other.

They put a blankie over Kee's face with a hole in it that exposes the wound. The doctor starts to stitch. Keegan is amazing. We tell him to hold still and it will go fast. Unfortunately the doctor has to do two stiches in the sub-layer of the skin next to the bone and five stitches in the top layer of the skin. Keegan is awesome, there are one and half stitches left when he starts to cry and scream. Around the third stitch I start to sweat, get dizzy, and I go sit down.

Since they don't need the nurse for Keegan he is watching me, he says, "I think mommy needs to take some deep breathes." I think oh yeah that would help. Gma is stuck holding Keegan's hand by herself while I speak encouragement from the chair.

As the doctor finishes up Keegan's greatest concern is his promised Popsicle. He wants cherry. He gets cherry and a ton of praise about what a brave amazing kid he is to take all that stitching so well!

While we wait for release papers Keegan wanders out of the room to talk to the policeman and nurse standing out there. In his normal manner he starts chatting them up. He tells them that he ran too fast and got a hole in his head. It's okay though because the doctor fixed it all up. He got a Popsicle and he really liked it. Oh and he doesn't really want to do that again. He has them in stitches (good pun huh) by the time he leaves.

I couldn't believe how good he was and how quickly he was making people laugh again. I also couldn't believe how close I came to passing out, I mean really, I guess it is different when it is your kid.

Then we go to Target to get him a cookie with frosting and sprinkles and a toy; his reward for being wonderful. We also drop some Make-a-Wish donations off at daycare and let him go show off his stitches. It was nice to drop by because his teacher felt really horrible and he scared a lot of people there. So, he was in telling them about the doctor sewing the hole in his head shut and about his Popsicle. He was hamming it up; he also told them he really doesn't think he wants to get stitches again. That doctor kept poking me in the head over and over, he says.

So we leave. I find out while I am there that daycare will cover any of the cost of the incident that our health care doesn't cover; how cool is that?! They apologized so much, and I am like you know this could have happened anywhere. Really I am amazed we haven't been in the ER yet with all this kid's antics.

Then home for a nap. We spend some time looking at Keegan's stitches with him in the mirror. Explaining what they do and how they are like the stitches that hold his shirt together. We talk about when he goes in Monday to have the stitches removed it won't hurt and he shouldn't be scared. He is cool about it all. Miraculously the wound is completely scabbed shut shortly after we get home. I am amazed at the healing rate of kids.

After all the excitement we realize that there is an interesting irony to this all happening. We have family pictures this Sunday. Oh well, I guess these will be unique pictures. We are hoping he doesn't bruise too much.

The whole affair made me very thankful to our modern health care system, and our local ER who thinks to provide Popsicles to injured kiddies. It also made me very very thankful to my mother. Who helped us get Keegan to the ER half an hour earlier than we would have otherwise; I am also glad that she at least isn't a fainter so Keegan had her to hold his hand the whole way through! Thank you mom :-) Below is a very blurry picture of Kee's stitches...

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy

So, we are fairly used to Keegan switching allegiances. One week he wants mommy to do everything, the next week it is daddy. I am also used to the Friday night "I want daddy phase". Keegan and I stay home all day together on Friday and then he is really excited to see daddy when daddy comes home. That is totally understandable.

What I wasn't prepared for was a month long boycott on mommy. When me and Keegan are together by ourselves (like Fridays) we have a lot of fun. We do lots of neat stuff. But when Lyle is there it is a different story.

When Lyle is home (like every night after work) I am banned from Keegan's presence. He is only two and a half you say...ah well he exercises what power he has. All night long I am subjected to "Mommy go away", "I need daddy to do it", "Mommy you can't come down here, I want only daddy", "Mommy doesn't get a hug", "Mommy can't read me books". And the all time heart-breaker "Mommy I don't love you."

I know the boy is only two. When he hurts himself the first place he comes is mommy. When he is sick he comes to mommy. Last weekend we were playing board games and he didn't feel well. So he came over to sit on my lap; of course he had to ruin it by telling me (As he snuggled in my lap) "Mommy, I would rather sit with daddy." I offered to move him over to Lyle's lap, but he wanted to stay on my lap...he just wanted me to know that he usually likes daddy better. Are you confused? Me too...

Okay, so he is only two. Keegan is a pretty smart cookie, so every once in a while I forget he is only two. Who knows what is going on in the two year old head. The boy goes from loving the color purple to hating it in 5 seconds. Unfortunately that doesn't mean him "not loving mommy" doesn't have an effect.

I try to look at the bright side of things. I have more time to get things around the house done if we split up and daddy does the Keegan things. I have more time to myself, it is kind of nice. On the other hand though, well, it kind of hurts my feelings and makes me feel sad. Silly, I know, but I feel upset that he doesn't want to spend time with me. I mean in another month, he will probably be all about mommy. But, a little voice in my head whispers, "What if he never likes mommy again? What if this is just a prelude to his teenage years? What if I am doing something to inadvertently make him hate me?" Do I know this is silly, you bet! Does it still make me sad...yep.

So when in doubt I turn to the source that always at least provides interesting reading. I go to Google and type in "My toddler only wants.." guess what Google fills in for me.."My toddler only wants DADDY"

Apparently I am not alone in the world. Most of the issues are around stay at home moms and the kids loving daddy more when he gets home from work. I get that, kids don't get to see dad as much so they want more daddy time. That is sooo not our issue. Then the other issue was with working mothers. In these cases mom and dad spend equal time with the kid, but the kid prefers daddy. This is harder on working moms because we already feel like we only get a few hours a day with our kiddies and to loose that time is devastating.

Is there a theory for the second issue? Of course there is, this is the internet you know! Apparently a lot of working moms multi-task (okay all moms do that, I am not trying to be biased here) but I know personally I am trying to do wash, pay the bills, get dinner ready (sometimes Lyle does this), read the mail, and do a million other things while I play with Keegan in the 2 hours that he is with us when we are home. Could I do this after he goes to sleep? Yes, and I do some stuff. But to spend every hour of my free time doing this leads to madness...I just can't do it and stay sane.

Apparently kids (especially boys) can feel nervous when mom is multi-tasking and whipping around too much. So, they stick with the parent that will sit with them and not do anything else. Lyle does a ton around the house. But he is not a multi-tasker. I have often asked him why he can't pay bills and play with Keegan at the same time :-) I guess maybe his way is better than mine in this.

Unfortunately a constant state of movement is integral to who I am. I always have to do four things at once at work and I did that in school and I continue to be that way. How else would I do all that I fit in to one day?

So then comes the question what should we do? Realistically, nothing. This is a phase and Keegan will get over it. We have already seen him picking mommy and daddy for certain things. He loves to play hockey and rough house with daddy. If he wants to read a book or color, he usually comes to mommy. I am fine with this, it makes sense. Mommy and daddy have different things they like to do.

So when Keegan wants mommy to go away, should I? My initial reaction was No! I can't let this little 2 year dictate what I do. Well, that doesn't change what he wants. After a couple weeks of forcing my company on him. Lyle and I discussed it. We decided that (as long as Lyle isn't feeling overwhelmed by Keegan's neediness) when Keegan say "mommy leave" I will leave.

Last night Keegan wanted me gone in the worst way; he wanted to read books "only with daddy". So I gave him a hug and a kiss and left. Afterwards he kept asking Lyle where mommy had gone, Lyle is like "Well you wanted mommy gone so she left." Keegan went to bed. 15 minutes later I hear crying over the monitor "I need a kiss from mommy! She didn't really leave did she?" So I went down and we talked about how he makes me feel sad when he tells me to leave and how would he feel if I told him to leave. He said it would make him feel sad. We hugged, kissed and I thought good, issue solved.

Then the same thing happened tonight. He wanted me gone, I left. But this time he never wanted me to come back down :-( Ah well, issue not solved. I guess we will just have to wait this one out.

I leave to go out to the plant for a few days early November, I am kind of looking forward to it. Maybe Keegan will miss me and be happy to see me when I get back. Hah, how sad is that? I try to remember he is two...this isn't a popularity contest. I am surprised though at how sad it makes me, even though it doesn't make a lick of sense. Ah, the joys of being a parent. I can't imagine how I will feel when he is in his teens and hates his parents ;-)

Yet more toddlerisms

Having a toddler is great fun! Keegan with his broad vocabulary comes up with lots of interesting sayings and doings. So here is a brief recap of some of them.

The other night we were drinking apple cider from the orchard with dinner. Keegan asked, "Can I have some more apple spiders, please?"

On Friday I was doing laundry and Keegan laid on the floor and started screaming "Help me mommy, help me!" I ran out and was like, what's wrong. Keegan said, "I am a fishy and I got stuck in the mud." So I un-stuck him from the mud, but then he said I was stuck. We unstuck ourselves from the mud (Living room floor) for quite a while.

Then there is the big bad wolf. I was informed one night last week that I was a "big bad mommy wolf", Keegan was "a little piggy", and daddy was a "daddy piggy". I ran around chasing the piggies and growling on them. Then the "little piggy" lead the "Daddy piggy" to the couch. Of course the big bad wolf followed them, the piggies jumped on the couch. Keegan informed me that the couch was a brick house and that I would never be able to huff and puff and blow it down. We did this running and hiding act for an hour or so.

Then last Friday I was getting sick of hockey. Keegan and I had played hockey forever. I tried to get him to draw some on his Magnadoodle, he got it out and then told me the Magnadoodle was an ice rink and the magnets were a Zamboni. I was like "seriously Keegan, does everything have to be about hockey?" So he stopped playing with that and stared at me. Then he got up, got the blanket off the couch, got a flashlight and handed them to me. He then drug over his tub of duplos. I was like "okaayyy." He looked at me like I was stupid, turned on the flashlight, put the blanket over our heads, and opened the duplos. Then said "Mommy wants different, let's build towers in the dark." Okay, that was totally different. I have never before in my life built duplo towers under a blanket in the middle of the day by flashlight...

Then there was the lengthy conversation we had with the cart boy outside of Menards. I have recounted it below.
Keegan to cartboy: It's raining
Cartboy: It sure is buddy.
Keegan: It will snow soon.
Karissa: Only when it gets colder
Cartboy: Do you like snow?
Keegan: Yes, I like Halloween and Christmas too
Cartboy: You aren't shy are you?
Keegan: (Speechless)
Karissa: No he's not shy. You have a good day.
Cartboy: You too.
(We start to walk away, Keegan stops.)
Keegan: You know guy, I like candy too.
Cartboy: Oh, well Halloween and Christmas have candy.
Keegan: Yep, and I really like candy canes.
Cartboy: Me too.
Keegan: Yep, they're good.
Karissa: Okay, well you have a nice day.
Cartboy: Yep

This whole conversation took place standing in the rain, in the middle of the sidewalk. No, Keegan is not shy. Yes, he loves it when people talk back to him. Yes, I get stuck in strange conversation with strange people all the time now. It is okay, it is actually fun. No one thinks Keegan is strange he is just too darn cute :-)

The last odd thing I will talk about it Bunny. Bunny is one of Keegan's favorite stuffed animals. Bunny is a Plaja Pet, one of the stuffed animals where the tail and head come off and can be interchanged with other Plaja pets. Imagine Keegan's teachers' surprise when Bunny's head fell off during naptime. Keegan also brought Bunny grocery shopping. It was hilarious. Keegan had to explain to Bunny where everything was. He showed Bunny where the eggs were. Then told me we had to go by the pizza. I was like "we don't need pizza". Keegan was like, "Yes, but bunny needs to know where it is." So around Super Target we went, leaving numerous people laughing behind us, as Keegan explained the location of all food items to Bunny in meticulous detail. To add to the hilarity, occasionally Bunny's head would fall off...startling some poor person. To get the full affect Bunny has on people I have attached a picture below. Bunny looks like he is on crack full time, so when his head falls off it is very, very strange.


That's it for now. I am sure I have forgotten a million other funny stories. But there's a sampling for you.

Snow in October....early October

On Saturday day morning I woke up to snow. Then I laid back down for a moment to brace myself and then sat back up and peered out of the window in disbelief. I know they had predicted snow, but predicting and having are two different things. I suddenly felt like I should be Christmas shopping, even though we just got all of our Halloween decorations up Sunday afternoon.

Keegan of course was thrilled and greeted me with the questions "Is it Christmas now? Is Santa bringing presents?" Of course after breakfast we had to go out and play in the snow right away! Luckily the new boots I had ordered for Keegan came Friday afternoon (Yay, for Amazon Prime 2 day shipping). Unfortunately his new coat is still on the way. Lucky for us, his coat and snow pants from last year just barely fit him.

First thing to do was make a snow angle. Which was a bit confusing to Keegan at first but he got the hang of it pretty quickly with some guidance from daddy.


Then we went back to the backyard. The sight was a bit disturbing. There was snow all over the wildflowers by the lake, I took some pictures below. Oh and, of course, the boat and dock are still in the lake. We usually don't take the boat out until November, but well...we were caught a bit by surprise.




Wait let's back up for a second. Did I mention that last week I was washing shorts in the laundry? Two weeks ago we had some days in the mid-80's. Okay so now we need full mittens, boots, hats, etc. Wow...it was like weather whiplash. A bit of an extreme change, even for MN.

Well after our snow fun it was time to do something new and exciting (besides make snow angles the second week of October). Our library has a cool program called Museum Adventure Pass, I don't know if all counties have something like this but our library does.

There is a large display with a ton of museums in the Twin Cities area; each museum has a description and pocket below it with laminated tags in it. To use this service you take a laminated tag out of a pocket on the display and bring it up to the counter to "check out". The tag gets you two free passes to the museum in question. The passes are good for a week. What a cool way to check out some of the stranger MN museums? Or you can also get passes for the Walker, the Zoo, the Science Museum, etc. and many other more popular museums.

So there were two museums in the display that we hadn't been too. The first was the Firefighters Hall and Museum in Minneapolis. The second was The Works (Hands On) Museum. We opted to go to the Firefighters Museum. So after our snow fun, we headed out to the Firefighters Museum...which will be called the FFM from now on :-)

Little did we know it was "get in free day" (the only free day of the year) and they were doing lots of fun activities. They also had lots of volunteers on site to explain everything to us. It ended up being a lot more fun than we thought it would be. See pictures below.

There was one Firetruck you could climb into and operate the lights and horns. Keegan and I did this one and got a kick out of it.


Here's a view of the museum from up on the back of the fire truck.


Here is Lyle operating a water hose gun thing. It was pretty cool, you could move it up and down and rotate it and everything.


The next three pictures are of modules that they had set up for kids. On these mini-firetruck modules the kids could climb in and operate the firetruck (horns and all). They had a video screen set up so that it looked like the kids were actually backing up, driving down the street, and putting out fires! They also had cloths for kids to try on, a huge train table, model firetrucks, and lots of neat pictures of past fires. We weren't expecting much, but it was way more fun than we thought it was going to be! I recommend it, especially if you have a toddler that loves firetrucks :-)






So it was fun. On Sunday we went to the MN Zoo. Guess what the snow was gone, but at temps in the low 30's there definitely wasn't a crowd to fight. The neat thing was that the chilly temperatures made all the animals really active. So we got to see lots of activity while we were there.

Then we get to Monday. Would you believe I wake up and we are under a Winter Storm Advisory? So more snow. I had to take some visitors out to dinner tonight for work, so Lyle and Keegan were left to fend for themselves. When I pulled in the driveway a big beautiful snowman greeted me :-) Keegan was very proud of what he and daddy had done. Oh, I should mention that this morning Keegan was literally bouncing with joy at the sight of more snow. Again the question was, "Mommy, now is Santa coming?" I reminded him that we have Halloween to celebrate still, and really that is a holiday that we don't want to miss out on!