Broken arm and Disney tears

May 2010- THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY: I have an awesome neighbor and friend Heidi. She is so awesome that we trade kids, carpool and basically help each other with the Mom stuff. One day she was tending my kids while I was at the temple. I usually can check out and enjoy but this time I was worried about my kids the entire session. (Mostly concerns related to my kids hitting/not sharing/being rude to Heidi's near perfect children.) So when I get to Heidi's to pick them up, she tells me that Joseph was riding a tricycle in her kitchen (I told you she was nice) and tipped over and landed on his right arm. He kept holding his hurt arm to his side and would scream hysterically if you tried to touch it. I like to downplay injuries so I figured it was just a little sore and though I'd wait out the day to see what happened. But by 4 pm, he was definitely hurting and his little forearm was getting more swollen.

So off we went to the pediatrician who could NOT confirm it was broken. So, off we went to the hospital for x-rays. By now it was 6 pm and hospitals after business hours turn into torture chambers. TWO HOURS LATER...Joe finally gets the x-rays. Fortunately the technician was nice and let Joe take a "ride" on the x-ray table. We wait another 30 minutes to hear that "yes" it is broken but too late to get it casted that night. Apparently he had a compound fracture which means the bone is broken all the way through. Both arm bones in his forearm were broken, but luckily they weren't out of place so they wouldn't have to be reset.

So we make it through the night with lots of IB Profin and arrive bright and early at the pediatrician's office for our first casting experience. Joe wants a purple cast but I'm mean and say blue since it's Shamu's favorite color and we're headed there next week. The pediatrician perks up and wants to know all about our vacation plans. I'm getting kind of annoyed because I want this to be over with already and I'm mad that my son broke his arm right before our SeaWorld/Disneyland/Beach trip. However, I appreciated the digression after the Doc pulled out.....are you ready?.....waterproof casting material!!! Ta-da!

Did you even know such a thing existed? Well I didn't and it was a dream. Imagine a two year old at the beach trying to not get his cast wet? Well no problem with the super duper waterproof cast. Just rinse and dry. Did he get sand down his cast? No problem! Just aim the shower nozzle down the cast and rinse. Awesome!

I thought the cast would bother Joe, especially since it went above his elbow. But he didn't seem to mind. He did great the whole six weeks (other than a few incidents of hitting himself in the face with the hard plaster and a little tricky maneuvering to get in the carseat.)

June 2- THE END OF THE STORY: So, he got his cast off on a Wednesday. He wanted to keep his cast as a cool souvenir forever. We kept it for two days. : )

The next day (Thursday) he took a tumble down a giant blow-up slide while on his grandma's watch. (Notice a common thread here?) Hurt the OTHER ARM. Repeat paragraph two above except this time it was the left arm and it was not broken, just sprained. We kept it wrapped in an ace bandage for two weeks although I don't think ACE is meant to support an injury while doing Superman jumps off the couch.

May 9-16 THE MIDDLE OF THE STORY: We drive the twelve hours to San Diego and spend a day at the second happiest place in the world- Seaworld (coming in right behind the Disney Empire). I love Shamu. I know it's just a large whale jumping out of the water, but he does really cool tricks! I usually shed a few tears but something about the recent trainer/whale/death incident kept them at bay.
Joseph decided he wanted to get splashed by Shamu so he and Shaun went and sat in the splash zone. He changed his mind when the 40 degree tidal wave soaked him from head to toe. It took him a few churros to get over that one. Seaworld was re-doing the dolphin show so we missed that but got to see the Sealion and Otter show. Clyde and Seymour are a classic gig and completely hilarious, although you wouldn't know it from these faces:
Here's the happy family in front of a shamu slugbug- complete with tail fin. Joe's souvenir was a light saber whose light burned out as we pulled out of the parking lot and Emma's was a giant stuffed Shamu- cuz we need more of those.

We spent an evening walking along the San Diego boardwalk and checked out the gigantic aircraft carriers. Those battleships are some of the coolest things I've ever seen. It's like a skyscraper floating on water! Crazy!

After San Diego we drove up to Laguna Beach where the Franks (Shaun's side) live. We had a heavenly day at the actual Laguna Beach. Shaun's parents and Nick, Kate and Jane joined us. I love the beach!We relaxed another day at Newport Beach: rollerblading down the boardwalk, eating lunch at Ruby's on the pier and ferrying over to Balboa Island.Of course we spent a day at Disneyland. It was one of those perfect weather, perfect lines, perfect kids day. So much fun. And I did shed a few of those Disney tears. There's just something about Mary Poppins and Bert strolling arm-in-arm down main street with a barber shop quarter serenading off a trolley car. Love it. The Sant cousins joined us for the day and Elle's special pass helped us get to the front of the long lines.We learned a new official Disney policy: characters cannot sign casts. Thanks a lot Goofy.
You can't leave Disneyland without a giant sucker. Even if it sends your son into sugar overload.
One of our final stops was to California's oldest mission at San Juan Capistrano. Seriously some of the most beautiful gardens I've seen. But even the medians on the CA streets are planted. It must have something to do with all that sunshine. It's why we seem to go there every year!

THE END. (the real one.)