Chipped Tooth, Stitches and Vacation

We spent the last five days in Minnesota catching up with Mark's family. I love being with family, especially around the holidays and, as always, it was a blessing to spend time with them.  The kids traveled fairly well and had a great time playing with cousins. 

Although the trip went well, last Friday, I was a little worried we wouldn't have our act together enough to get out of Michigan.  Thursday night Ruby chipped a tooth so Friday morning I had to take her to the dentist, with Tabatha in tow. After the dentist, I picked Charlie up from Mark's office (where he was watching a movie under Mark's desk, waiting for me). We then met some of my family at Crazy Bounce for my neice's birthday. Charlie enjoyed 15 minutes of bouncing around in the ball pit and speeding down slides before he tripped and cracked his head open. He cried harder when he learned he had to leave the birthday party then he did from the cut, but I convinced him that he needed a doctor to get his face fixed.  

Mark left his super productive morning at work (remember Charlie was there most of the morning :) and met me at Crazy Bounce. He brought the girls home, fed them lunch and then handed them off to Emily (our fantastic babysitter) while I spent three hours at Urgent Care, waiting to have Charlie stitched up.  

Charlie was a TROOPER for most of the afternoon. He was tough about the pain and the blood. He never complained about missing lunch. He was polite to the doctor. I was so proud of him.

Then, the doctor taped gauze over his eyes so they could put the stitches in and this is when I watched Charlie turn into a raging incredible hulk. He screamed things like, "I'm so frustrated", "Get off of me", "I can't see", "Don't do this to me". I didn't know whether to laugh or cry; I actually think I did both.

I felt so bad for him. I had to lay on his torso to hold him down while one nurse held his head and another nurse held his feet.  He was a mad man. When the doctor finally got the cut sewn up, Charlie sat up and continued to punch and kick me. He was so mad.  He had to sit on the ground for a few minutes to calm down. I have never seen him like that, poor kid. He even broke blood vessels around his eyes because he was screaming so much. 

So, what did I do? What any good mom would do, I took him to Target to pick out a toy :) I felt so bad for laying on top of him to hold him down, I felt like I had to offer a peace offering.  

One Imaginex garabage truck later, he was a happy camper.  

I didn't start packing until after supper Friday night, but somehow we managed to roll out around 5am on Saturday. What a way to start our Christmas vacation.

More about MN to come...