Nothing a little plastic surgery won't fix

We'll, we made it almost four and a half years without a family trip to the emergency room. I mostly attribute that to the fact that our first child was a girl and our second child only started walking about 6 weeks ago, but our time has finally come. I have only been to the ER two other times in my life, once when I was 2 and fell off some porch steps, and once when Kurt opened the car door into his face. (Sorry, honey. It's funny now.)

This time, though, it was Eli's turn.

We were spending the day with Kurt's mom's side of the family at a CampFireGirls camp that most of the females on his side had attended as kids. It was a fun day of hiking, remembering, reconnecting, and eating. Myka found a lovely little girl her age to play with and we hardly saw her. Eli had two other one year old boys to play near and was happy as a clam once he knew we weren't leaving him there.
The main room had a large stone fireplace in the middle to help heat the building. We had just decided it was time for us to head home for the day and Kurt was loading the car while I was making sure we had remembered everything we had brought. I was standing near the fireplace in a circle of adults chatting about whatever when Eli spotted me and came over to check in. He was grabbing my legs and walking around and between them. Someone had just commented on how that reminded them of their own kids doing that at that age, and then I felt him slip right between my legs and heard a thump behind me that I immediately knew was his head hitting the fireplace. However, that thump wasn't nearly as loud as the audible gasp from everyone else in the circle who actually saw him hit the fireplace. I'm pretty sure my ability to stay calm through the cleaning up and calming him down process was due to the fact that I was not on the other side of that circle when it happened.
We got him cleaned up and determined he needed stitches only to remember we were nowhere near home. In the time we spent figuring out where the hospital was and trying to say our goodbye's, Eli happily trotted around the room acting like nothing had happened. I just kept thinking, "I'm glad you're happy now, because what's coming is not going to be a good time for you."
Lucky for us the Boone ER was only slightly busier (3 other patients) than the Montevideo ER (0 patients, lights off, Doctor sleeping) so we were able to get right in. The doctor who saw us let us know she was going off shift but would see us quick and seemed to have no desire to put stitches in a 1 year old's forehead before she left. She got a little overexcited as she explained to us that "a little glue should work". I'm guessing I had a questionable look on my face because she went on to explain how it is the plastic surgeon's tool of choice and she wasn't a believer until she saw it used on a cut twice this big and it closed right up. I wasn't going to argue and I was all for avoiding the shot of Novocaine that needs to go into the forehead (by far the worst part for Kurt) before stitches can be given. So they glued him right up, slapped some tape on there to hold it together and sent us on our way. And while I know I can get a bottle of glue and roll of tape for about $1.79 at the store, I'm guessing the bill we are going to see in a month may be a little more than that.

Triathlon Training

Throughout the month of October, Myka joined me in my evening journey to the UNI pool where I have been a part of the master's team for 3 years. For the first time since we've been here, they offered swim lessons (for current students and alumni) during the week. Since she is 4, I felt comfortable getting her started with her lesson, and then going to the big pool to do my workout. When she was finished she sat at the end of my lane and ate her snack and yelled at me to "go faster" and "get the lead out". Since I didn't get to observe her lessons, we don't have any pictures this time, but on the last day I had Kurt come with us to snap a few for posterity. We didn't realize that the last day was "fun day", so there wasn't much floating or backstroking going on. But when we got home and I looked to see what he did capture, I saw a future triathlete in the making. Just picture a few hundred other people around her and a horn going off at the start.

And of course some swimming after the entry.

And maybe not a suit with a skirt on it.

But otherwise, she's ready to go!

Pink Princess and Scary Spider

We have had quite a Halloween celebration this year that lasted the entire month of October. When Myka asked to be a princess for Halloween my hesitation mostly revolved around the weather. However, when she was invited to two inside parties before Halloween was even near, I decided we could get our money's worth out of a princess costume even if we had to find something warmer for the official event (and by "finding something" and "warmer" I mean "digging out" last year's "poodle costume"...)
We had a fun time finding a princess outfit (forget the Halloween costumes, we headed to the dress up aisle in the toy section), finding something to go under it to keep it from being too scratchy(first pair of long underwear), curling her hair (for the first party at least), wearing earrings (for the first 3 minutes of the first party) and dancing around like a princess (always). And all were happy with the results, especially the princess, who is, of course, the most important.

Eli's costume ended up being very easy, as a friend loaned me her son's spider costume from last year so he could move on to being an octopus. (She has a thing for toddlers with lots of legs...) But catching the spider for a minute so I could get a picture was kind of like when a real spider finds that one spot in the corner where your shoe just doesn't quite fit and you can't squish it no matter how hard you try. So we have a few shots on the run and many memories of his 8 legs flailing about as he went about his business oblivious to the fact that he just sprouted 6 extra appendages.And as I predicted, the weather was no where near the 80 degrees we had last year, so we were all very bundled as we headed downtown to do the Main Street Trick or Treat before the real event around our neighborhood.

Myka was good at remembering her "Trick or Treat"'s and "Thank You"'s this year which was fun to see, but was a bit put off that most of the merchants were too cold to care or remember their "you're welcome"'s.


Eli just didn't really care in general...

And for the 3rd time in this house (we closed on the house November 3rd of 2006, so we just missed Halloween here that year) we have our picture by the tree before Kurt and Myka headed around the loop for "more free candy". Again, these pictures are getting harder and harder to take...

I'm not sure if it was the weather or the flu but we had a much smaller contingent than normal come by our door this year, and I'm sure the rest of the neighborhood noticed the same thing. That might be why it appears that many of the houses were a little extra generous this year as they tried to get rid of their candy to whoever may be coming by. As I was putting Eli to bed and Kurt and Myka started inspecting/sorting the loot they had literally dragged home, this is what I found when I came back downstairs:

I'm waiting for the day when she remembers counting exactly 7 packs of skittles but has only eaten 4 and there are no more left. Or snickers. Or m&m's. Or peanut butter cups...

Carving Time

We saved our annual pumpkin carving party until the week before Halloween this year so the little jack-o-lanterns would make it to the big day. Eli still didn't get to participate as the only time we had to work was his naptime, but it was fun watching Myka help out a little more this year and react to the gooey goodness that comes with the process. Two years ago she was all about it and last year she would barely touch the seeds let alone the guts. This time she was somewhere in the middle, as she was our main seed sorter and did get herself a little bit gooey when the job called for it. Grandma and Grandpa Bates made the trip for the second year in a row so we had quite a gang of jack-o-lanterns by the end of the day.

And they seemed to have quite a range of personalities as well...