Cast On, Cast Off

Believe it or not it, has been 4 weeks since Sophie took a tumble off the monkey bars!  Overall, it was much less painful for the rest of us than I thought would be possible.  Hahaha.  Sophie is not usually one to keep her frustration, pain, or anything else to herself, so I had prepared myself for the worst.  I was sure we'd hear whining and complaining and freaking out the entire month due to pain or itching or whatever but in actuality we heard nary a peep!  There were a couple of times she was itchy, but after tapping the cast with a spoon the way the nurse told her to, she was able to get it out of her system.

Two weeks ago she got the original {pink} cast taken off and a shorter, purple cast put on.  Today the casts came off for good and instead she'll have a wrist brace to wear for a little while longer.  She was a bit bummed to hear she can't do the monkey bars for another month or so but overall she's a happy camper.

  

Before leaving, the doctor handed me a packet of "exercises" to do with Sophie to help her gain back strength and mobility in her wrist.   I literally laughed out loud as I flipped through the pages and saw the following illustrations that went along with the movements.   Apparently she'll need to don a leotard while she works out.  Hahahahaha.

After checking Sophie back into school, I headed home with the little ones to settle in for an uneventful afternoon.  And it was fairly uneventful until I decided to make a last minute run to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner.  As we were doing our shopping, I grabbed a sample of chocolate drizzled popcorn for Alex and Jane to eat {side-note -- we don't think Alex is allergic to milk anymore}, when after eating a couple of bites Jane immediately started sticking her fingers in her mouth and crying that her throat was burning.  Great.  I had checked the bag for allergen listings before giving them the treat and there wasn't anything listed that she was allergic to, but it was made in a facility where nuts and other things are handled.  I have no idea if there were trace amounts or what, but I could tell right then that something was not right.  She kept clutching at her mouth and alternating between crying and just looking scared because she thought she was going to throw up.  At this point I could see a rash starting around her mouth and I headed for the pharmacy aisle to grab some Benadryl because I knew we were out at home anyway.  I grabbed a few bottles, opened one up, and gave her a dose right there in the store.  Between the Benadryl and not really sleeping well last night, I knew she'd be a goner as soon as we were in the car.  I don't think we had even left the parking lot before she had already started to fall asleep in her seat!

Once home, I tried to wake her up -- it was already after 3 in the afternoon and I didn't want her to be up all night as a result of such a late nap -- but she was having nothing of it.  After acknowledging defeat, I let her climb on the couch and go back to sleep while I tried to unload groceries and get stuff cleaned up around the house.  Well, 15 or 20 minutes later -- just as I was starting to put groceries away in the kitchen -- I heard the sound that no parent likes to hear: the splattering of puke everywhere.  Jane woke herself up when she started throwing up all over the pillow on the couch, and even though I ran over and grabbed her to bee-line it to the bathroom, there was still quite a mess for me to clean up when she was done.  Yuck!  All's well that ends well, though, and once she got everything out of her system she was as good as new. The kids got home just as I was coming downstairs with clean clothes for Jane and aside from catching Alex standing on the kitchen table a few times during the course of the evening, the rest of the day was problem free.  Here's to hoping it stays that way!