When Dad's Away...

...little boys will play--in the BATHTUB. It was all going great. I thought. Eric left Monday morning to start his new job at the University of Kentucky. Isaac and Benjamin were having a grand time in their "boat/swimming pool/pretend anything garden tub in the master bath. I was just down the hallway. After all, they weren't actually taking a bath. There was no water. What could be the danger? Then I heard Isaac. That kind of cry--the kind that makes you run. He'd hurt his arm. He was jumping from the shelf ledge into the tub. And fell. A few phone calls and a Benjamin/Dylan drop-0ff at friends later, Isaac and I were at the pediatricians office with much cajoling and promises of a no shots visit. I then had to soothe him through x-rays even though we knew it was hurting his little arm. To no avail. The pediatrician referred us to the Scottish Rite Children's Emergency Room. It could be nurse maid's elbow (FOR THE THIRD TIME) or he could have fractured his elbow. Better go check it out. After a 20 minute drive of "I'm hungry" ("but you can't eat anything until after the doctor sees you, sweetie') over highway and past "tall buildings" we checked into the Emergency Room. I played with the very cool magnetized car/sand table. (Can I have one of those at home?) Isaac loved the child-sized recliner seats and Lilo and Stitch. Before we could get comfortable, we were being seen. The doctor met us on the way to the room, grabbed the x-rays, guessed nurse maid's elbow (dislocated) and had Isaac laughing as he used his puppy to talk to him and had his elbow twisted back into position in no time at all. Isaac sucked on a popsicle while we were both checked in and checked out at the same time. The popsicle, comic act and elbow repositioning only cost $150 and took about ten minutes (Did you ever think that you could be in and out of emergency so fast?). Thanks for the blessing of no elbow fractures!

I said to Isaac (who is proudly showing one and all his new "watch"/hospital wrist band that he wont' let me take off), "You know, you really shouldn't jump from the side of the tub anymore. Let's not do this again."

He said, "Yeah. I know. I need a better parachute! Benjamin had a good one. But I didn't."

For that laugh alone, I'd almost go through it all over again. Love that little guy and his humor! Let's hope though that my stint as temporarily single mother while Eric is in Kentucky is not this eventful anymore.