Lumps and bumps and bruises....oh my.

A week ago today, we had a scare. Kind of a big one.

I was working down in the Mom Cave, and the boys were upstairs. A friend had come over to play, and they were getting more than a bit rowdy. I listened to them getting louder and louder, and when it became more obvious that they weren't going to calm themselves down, I started to head upstairs.

Just as I put my foot on the bottom step, I heard a drastic change in the noise - now it was punctuated with screams of pain. I started running up the steps and the door opened, with Daniel yelling at me "MOM COME QUICK JARED'S HURT!"

Long story short, as he was racing through the house, he misjudged a turn and ran into a wall. Hard.

When I peeled his hands away from his forehead, I was relieved that there was no blood, but I watched in fear as the goose egg grew right in front of my eyes. We iced it immediately, with him still lying on the floor in the hallway. I talked to him, watched his eyes, listened to his responses - and decided within about 20 minutes that he needed to be checked. 

We got to the ER and he was taken right in to be seen (so thankful again for small towns). The doctor was awesome and decided almost immediately to do a CT scan to be safe, and because he had some concerns. Thankfully, the CT was clear, he was diagnosed with a concussion, and we were sent home.

He recovered quickly (almost too quickly) and was running around again later that day. The bruising started a couple of days later and other than being tender, he seemed fine. 

I took him to our pediatrician on Monday for a follow up, and she did an eye exam - which he failed miserably in the eye on the side of his head that got hit. Fearing that he might have done some damage to the eye, she referred him to an optometrist - where we went today.

After an extremely thorough exam, which included dilating his eyes for the first time ever, it was determined that he did not damage his eye. But, his vision sucks.

At the ripe old age of 11, he's getting bifocals.

There's a good chance that he'll grow out of his crappy vision. Or, since I've already cursed one kid with emotional scarring I guess he can blame me for being blind as a bat. Either way, I'm just so incredibly thankful that it's not damage to his eye.

Never a dull moment. Ever.

Is Christmas Break over yet?

This might have been the kids' first full day of Christmas Break - but wow. The kids did nothing but fight all. day. long. From the time they got up until the time that they went to bed, they were at it.

I was at my wits' end more than once, and may not have displayed the most patient parenting skills available, but there does come a time when I just can't deal with it anymore. There may have been a garbage bag rampage in the girls' room, the boys might have gotten sent to their room more than once, there may have been some toys taken away on a semi-permanent (or permanent in one case) basis, and there may have been a few temper tantrums on my part.

I'm not perfect. I don't even pretend to be.

But, in between the chaos, I had to take Sarah to get her eyes examined. Luckily, The Dude came to my rescue (again) and kept the other 4 kids at home and I just took her downtown to get it done.

We were only gone an hour, but it was a peaceful hour...and in that hour he managed to help/encourage Emily to take care of her mess in the girls' room as well as straighten up the kitchen for me - all the while keeping all 3 of the boys in line. After Sarah and I got home, he got her to take care of her mess in their room too. I don't know how he does it - but he's good at it.

I had to try on a funky pair just for the heck of it.

Sarah's new frames - it'll be about a week before she gets them.

So tomorrow's plans involve having The Dude here all day so that we can clean and start prepping food for our feast on Saturday...we can tag team with the kids to keep them occupied and hopefully prevent them from killing each other and/or burning down the house. At some point, I do have to wrap presents - I was going to do that tonight, but a lack of sleep last night and a lot of emotional stress today (not just the kids, but some other stuff too) are acting together to make this an early night.

If I have to, I'll sneak presents into the bathroom tomorrow during the day to wrap them while The Dude distracts the kids. I really should go out and get more stocking stuffers and a few more small things for the boys....but we'll see what happens in that department.

Right now, the futon is calling my name....