Sasha's First Trip to the ER

Well ... tonight was quite the night. Sasha, making a mad dash for the chair in my office, fell forward against the wood part on the bottom and cut his lip open. He started crying and came over to show me the huge gash he had on his lip. I hustled him (Nathan was enroute back from a business trip in Jacksonville) into the bathroom and started cleaning away the blood. He had a large cut inside his bottom lip and two on his chin. I called my friend, Elizabeth the nurse (fabulous mother to four great kids), to make sure I was doing everything I was suppose to (you take the CPR / First Aid class but a screaming two year old looks so much different than that little plastic doll we used). She wasn't home. I called my Mom's cell phone - no answer. I couldn't find our neighbor's number. I called Elizabeth's cell phone - no answer. I left a hysterical message in which I couldn't remember my own home number and eventually just told her that I hoped my number had come up on caller id so she could call me back.

Elizabeth called and told me to continue applying pressure with a cold wash cloth. The bleeding stopped but it still looked deep. Hearing the uncertainty in my voice, she suggested that she come over within the hour on her way home from her event. In the mean time, we spoke to Baba and Sasha seemed more irritated that he no longer could sit in the bathroom sink than about his lip. When Elizabeth arrives she thought that a trip to the ER was warrented so we (Elizabeth, Katy and I) all piled in the car to head to the Acute Care Center.

Sasha did really well until we had to see a mean Romanian doctor. After holding a piece of gauze on his outside cut for 30 minutes with him screaming (SCREAMING) at the top of his lungs (which can't be good for the ER patient morale) she finally wandered back in. They placed him on a board and strapped him down with velcro to keep him still. It took four of us to hold him down (he's really a strong little boy). In the end, he got three stitches on the outside and three on the inside of his mouth. He did far better than I would have as I would've needed to be totally out for something like that.

Afterwards, the tears drying on his little face, he waved and said "Bye" to the ER staff. We waited for our paperwork and finally piled back into the car. Unfortunately, the saga continued as I discovered that the key on my car ring doesn't fit our front door. Very strange (yes, I had everyone else try and it truly doesn't fit). So, we piled back into the car and headed for Elizabeth's house (she lives a couple blocks from our house) to wait for Nathan to pick us up. What a night! To further prepare me for all the fun that is to come as a mother to active boys, Elizabeth's twin boys, Tommy and George, sat and filled me in on all the accidents that their family has had over the years. Wow ... I'm putting Elizabeth on speed dial!

Snickers Platt - Opossum Hunter!

Last night we came home from having dinner with our friends, Rory (fitness extraordinaire), her husband, Ken (botanist extraordinaire - he said we could swap plants the next time we get together ... you know how excited I am!) and there absolutely beautiful daughter, Nora. Sasha was well behaved and really enjoyed Nora's play kitchen - perhaps he'll be a chef.

I had gone upstairs to check my email while Nathan let the boxers out. Soon, I heard shouts and screams from Nathan. Snickers Platt had gone into the yard, located a opossum and decided to bring it into the house. Now, this would've been a nice treat if we lived in Tennessee but we weren't all that interested in having a opossum on the loose in our house.

You could tell that Snickers was really proud of herself. I mean Blake just went out, did his stuff and came back in. Snickers actually did her stuff, tracked a opossum, carried it in her mouth and tried to present it to Nathan as a gift at our back door (actually, that's more cat-like behavior than boxer. She was probably bringing it inside so she could play with it in the warmth of her own home).

And, yes, we do look out into the yard for vermin (we have the largest raccoon I've ever seen living in the woods behind our house) but this one must've blended in to the snow. For those of you that live in the south, you may not have seen one of these. She's been spitting out hair every since!