I try not to over schedule our days especially when my kids have been displaying undesirable behavior.  The strain of hearing near constant whining is enough to make me want to stab my eardrum with an ice pick.

Kamryn started mocking me when I tell her to do something.  She’ll repeat in a sassy, sing-song voice exactly what I told her to do.  Guess how that goes over with me.  I’m fairly certain I nipped that in the bud, but the fact that she even thought it OK to start…well, I know I’m in for a world of hurt in 10 years.

Rory’s favorite thing to do is immediately respond, “NO!” to any command and then continue doing what he isn’t supposed to do with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Today we were going shopping for some shoes and an outfit for Rory.  I knew this wasn’t going to be riveting stuff for the kids so I waved a carrot of meeting Daddy for lunch when we got done.  That worked fairly well.  After lunch, I had a few more stores I wanted to stop in so I waved another little carrot of meeting some friends at the park later in the afternoon.  Besides Rory telling a little old lady that he had been walking for 5 hours, they were pretty good.

After a quick stop at home, we headed to the park to meet our friends, Patty, Elise, Keira, and Reese.  We had bikes, scooters and a playground.  The world was ours!  The kids were playing happily when Elise slipped on some sand while trying to stop her scooter and scraped her back.  She recovered quickly and was back playing in no time.  Either immediately before or right after Kamryn was doing the monkey bars and dropped to the ground and hit her cheek with her knee.  There were tears and a big red mark, but no permanent damage.

Next there was a huge group of kids from E.S.S. (Extended Student Services) that came out on the playground.  They were good kids, but something went down and Rory started screaming.  He pointed to his chest and while I didn’t see anything, he was still complaining about it when he took his shower tonight.

Kamryn was riding her bike around and just as I was about to tell Patty that she had never had a huge wipeout, I heard a blood curling scream and turned around to see Kamryn tangled up in her bike on the sidewalk.  Damn!  She had a bloody elbow, but nothing a little band-aid couldn’t fix.

Ugh…we were finally on an accident free streak for a good 15 minutes when Reese screamed.  Reese and Keira were on a teeter totter type thing and Reese got her foot caught underneath.  I could see a huge lump growing on the back of her ankle and I told Patty it looked broken.

I was kind of freaking out, but Patty was as calm as could be.  I told her to take Reese to Urgent Care and I would take Elise and Keira home, but she said it was OK, she would drop the girls off and then take her.  Reese was crying for a little bit, but settled down rather quickly.  Patty said she seemed fine and I told her (kind of joking and kind of serious) that she was in shock!  I would be lying if it didn’t cross my mind to call an ambulance.  Sometimes I kind of loose my shit, but I my filter was on and didn’t shout out, “I’LL CALL 911!”

Patty did take her to Urgent Care and I took the girls home, but I started thinking that if it would have been my child, I would have reacted the exact same way.  In fact, I started wondering if I actually would have even gone to Urgent Care.  It always seems worse when it’s someone else’s child.

When I was 5, I got on the wrong side of an aluminum bat and caught it right in the face.  Right under my left eye.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, get all the jokes out…Oh that’s what happened to you!  I had a huge goose egg, but as far as I know, I didn’t loose consciousnesses at that time.  I remember walking home from the neighbor’s house, crying and then the next thing I recall was lying on the couch and eating the best piece of chicken ever.  My parents didn’t take me to the doctor and I don’t know if that was the right or wrong thing to do, but there is a dent in my head there and a dimple if smile really big.

I am happy to report that Patty was right to stay calm.  Reese has all of her bones intact and her injuries aren’t anything that can’t be handled with a little Advil.  She did get a ride in a wheelchair and I’m guessing that will be remembered more than the pain she felt right after her leg was squished under the teeter totter.