Stupid door

There's always some point in our lives as parents when we do things to our children that hurt them and we beat ourselves up for it. Some let their infants roll off the bed, some look away for a second and that toddler puts his little hand on the hot oven door, maybe we even watch in slow motion as they fall down bust their lip open on a toy you should have picked up an hour ago. When Helen was a baby I looked away for a second and she rolled off the couch, and I felt HORRBILE about that, but I found away to get over it.

Today, however, I did another Mommy Booboo and closed Helen's fingers in the door. I didn't realize she was holding onto the threshold near the henge and the door shut all the way before she let out a scream. Bless her heart. She cried....but you knew that. I cried...you probably knew that too. She told me in her pitiful little sobbing cry, "I hold MOMMY! Mommy my fingers! Kiss it mommy! I want my bandaid! I want my Lambie! Mommy, fingers in the door it hurts!"

My heart ached. I did my initial exam and put a bandaid and ointment on the fingernail of her right ring finger. I squished it pretty good....

Knowing Helen and how she normally reacts to pain, she seemed to be in more pain than just a squished finger. I didn't think it could be broken, but it did seem like something else was wrong.

I took her to her doctor and our sweet Dr. Huff said she needed to do Xrays because if the growth plates were damaged, we needed to get her seen by a specialist. The first Xray went GREAT because they didn't have to manipulate the fingers at all. Just put them flat on the film. The second however took me and another nurse to hold her down to get a good shot. They had to see the side angle of the finger.

We waited as they developed and sure enough....the tip of her finger was broken. Thank the Lord God in Heaven that I didn't damage the growth plates. Dr. Huff said she'd be fine in a few weeks, but until then we had to keep them taped up and a bandaid over the finger nail until it heals.

I told Helen as she screamed during the second Xray that if she would hold still, I would buy her some ice cream. So I lived up to my end of the deal and took her to Sonic and bought her a strawberry smoothie. When we went to the drug store to get some tape I got her a new cup too! She had to put her smoothie in it too!

All in all, here's our little patient with her sticker from the doctor, her new cup, and her war wounds.

A treat...

Don't they look good? MMMM! Tollhouse cookies.....they cooked up so nicely. We made them for Santa, Helen and I did. She helped me put in the ingredients and then after she went to bed they came out of the oven to cool. Oh, I was CRAVING these by the time they were cool enough to taste. That first bite was finally mine and it was AWFUL. I realized after that first nasty bite that we put in one TABLEspoon of salt instead of one TEAspoon. Yeah, it was a cookie, but it was a terrible cookie. It looked good, but man it was bad. Poor Santa, all he got was milk.

For Nathan

All of you who know us outside of the blogosphere know that Brian's sister and family lived out here near us for about a year. During that time, Helen and Nathan (Leslie's son) became nearly as close as brother and sister. They were partners in crime and I dare predict that they will continue to do so the remainder of their lives.

The last few time we had the opportunity spend time with them, and we had our camera out, I made sure to capture it. Here are a few things in memory of the time spent with our sweet Nathan.

This was fun time with the sidewalk chalk. This is a drawing depicting Nathan's tractor and wagon. Helen always rides in the wagon and Nathan always drives.

Running around the church fellowship room.

When Helen got her new tricycle, Nathan got a BIG WHEEL! He was so precious riding that thing. He didn't want to pedal it, he wanted to push it. He'll get it soon. If not already...

We miss you Nathan. Helen asked about you this week when we went to church. She wanted to know if you'd be at church. Of course we said no, but that's her way to let us know she misses you.

Trike and Jannie

I know Christmas is all kinda gone, but I wanted to take a moment to note a few things just so I'll have it archieved.

This year we spent Christmas at home, without traveling, but the weekend before, we went to visit the Pendley side of Brian's family. We had Christmas twice that weekend. Once at Eric and Haley's house and once at Deedee's house. The "everybody" get-together was at Deedee's. The more personal, immediate family christmas was at Eric's.

Brian's parents and siblings met early that morning to exchange gifts together and to let the kids open all of their loot. It was really fun because we had a YUMMY brunch and then had presents. Helen got her very first Cabbage Patch doll, according to the birth certificate the doll's name is Bobye Jannie. I thought it was the dumbest name. It just doesn't FLOW at all plus it just really sounds completely back-hills redneck to me. (And I'm from those back hills so I can say that. hehe.)

Here's Jannie. Her aunt Leslie bought it for her and I was thrilled. I loved cabbage patch dolls as a child and I am so glad Helen got one. This was the best shot I could get with her and the doll. She was ALL over the place and wouldn't open one more gift until that doll was out of the box. So Dad got to work on that....

The next gift was a few outfits, both of which she wore that weekend because they were SO cute. Then came the trike. Mimi and PawPaw bought her a Radio Flyer tricycle. It came pre-assembled so she was ready to ride immediately.

I loved this shot. She and Brian were trying it outide on the concrete. She didn't quite understand how to make her feet work to make the pedals go. She's still working on that actually. When it gets warmer, we'll be all over the street working on it. So in this picture, she's just got her feet on the pedals as they rotate....sort of.