Funny stories about my kids. . . Chili, Head & Paint

Now do I have your attention? By a title like that, I would assume someone would be interested in reading this post. I was thinking the other day about stories when the kids were small that I just needed to type up. A few weeks ago I was looking through the baby books and Lincoln's was literally bare. I didn't have one thing in it. Then I thought. Hey, now that I'm older, I like hearing stories about what I did when I was little instead of reading about when I got my first tooth, or what my daily routine was. So, maybe my kids will feel the same thing - and they will be able to read all sorts of stories!
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Sierra: Sierra's birthday is in September and we moved to the country a month after her 1st b-day. The house was so icky and she was only allowed in a few rooms and we blocked the doors with gates so she couldn't get into the other parts of the house. We had a paint pan sitting out because Jon was going to paint again that next morning or he forgot to put the paint pan away the night before or something. I can't really remember, but point being, wet paint was exposed and on the kitchen floor. Jon was already at work and I ran into the bathroom to check my lipstick and when I came back into the kitchen, Sierra had white stuff on her fingers, in her mouth and on her lips. I was shocked and thought, "Dear Lord, what do I do?" It was regular latex paint and so I called Poison Control and they said that everything would be just fine and to wash her hands and get as much paint out of her mouth as possible. Ugh. At least nothing happened and she was ok!

Mercedes: Mercedes' bday is in October and a few days before her 2nd b-day, she had a bit of an accident that required staples! She was a kid that always tipped her kitchen chair back on 2 legs while she was sitting at the table. It was after work and we were eating supper. Jon wasn't home yet and Mercedes was eating and tipping back. I got mad and told her to quit or she'll get hurt. I was doing something in the kitchen sink and just as I looked back at her, I saw her tipping over and it was everything was in slow motion. I couldn't get to her in time and she fell completely backwards and hit her head on the oven door. Immediately she stood up and did NOT cry. At first I thought, "What the hell? Why isn't she crying?" She had this absolutely stunned look on her face and I asked her if she was ok and she just nodded her head. She was maybe 7 ft from me. She had on one of those wipe off bibs and I could see something dripping into her bib. (It has a pouch at the bottom to catch the food.) I went over to her and here her head was bleeding and it was running through her hair and starting to pool in her bib! Plus, she still WASN'T crying! I paniced a bit wondering if I needed to bring Sierra somewhere else and bring Mercedes in, or just bring everyone to ER. At this time Sierra came back into the kitchen and held on to Mercedes and told her everything would be just fine and that she needed to go to the doctor and get her head fixed. Why she stayed so calm is beyond me. She was a natural and it was amazing; and to think she was only 5 yrs old! I told Sierra to stay with Mercedes and I was going to call ER. Jon works at the hospital all the time, so the people knew who I was. Anyway, I call there and say who I was and what happened and ask, "Do you think I should bring her in? I mean, the blood is pooling in the bib, but yet it looks like it quit bleeding? Well, never mind, I'm bringing her in and I'll be there in about 20 minutes." Thinking back, I remember the lady on the other end saying, "We'll be waiting." I never gave her the chance to even respond to any of my questions as I was talking a mile a minute. lol. We get to the hospital and by now Mercedes head had quit bleeding and I still couldn't get a hold of Jon. Mercedes still wasn't crying at all and on the way to ER, she was commenting on the farm machinery in the field and at the trees and I'm wondering, "Dear Lord, is she crazy? Is she in shock? Why isn't she crying?!" Sierra was talking with her the whole time as I told Sierra it was extremely important that she doesn't fall asleep. Sierra didn't have any problems talking with her the entire way. lol. Looking at her head, the gash was huge and deep. I will never, ever forget that. The docs put something on her head to clean it out and she still didn't cry. Then, the doc said she would need staples and I must have had a paniced look on my face because the nurse asked me to hand over Mercedes and to wait in the waiting room. I told her I couldn't leave her there and then Sierra (like the little woman she is) said, "Mom, we need to wait outside. You don't have a choice." She took my hand and led me away. Mercedes started crying when I left her there and within a few minutes the nurse came back and the staples were in. She had 7 staples and I wondering how on earth they could staple someone's head? When I looked at her head, I almost puked. It looked horrendous. They didn't even shave her head in that spot and there was some hair stuck in one of the staples and I asked about that and they said that was ok and it wouldn't get infected. Ok, ok, I guess they are doctors and should know. About 5 minutes after the staples were in, Jon finally came and Mercedes had a huge smile for him and started talking a mile a minute and acted as if she just got her second wind. The doc said she never really cried over the staples and she just whimpered a bit and she was fine when they told her mommy would be right back. Absolutely crazy with how strong she was and that she didn't cry. Amazing how Sierra was so mature at that time and led me to do what I was supposed to. We had to leave the staples in for about 10 days and then she had them out. I made Jon come with because I didn't think I could do it on my own. We were able to go to our regular doc to have them out (we went to our regular ER, but it wasn't our own doc). My goodness, it looked like a regular staple remover. It wasn't, but I just couldn't watch. The doc told me to sit down because I started getting so pale and Mercedes was crying because it hurt and Jon was holding her while the doc took the staples out. That was horrible. Then, her head started bleeding even! Man, that was tough. She and I were never so happy to leave the clinic as we were that day. She was still so strong. I know how much it hurt getting the staples out after the c-section and then to have them taken out of your head and a few of them were stuck and you have bone only so far below the skin and so it has to pinch even more when you have trouble removing them.

That was our very first trip to the ER. Sierra never had anything where she had to go and then Mercedes' trip was just a few days before her 2nd b-day and I thought, "My goodness, what does she have in store for me if she's only this old?" Well, she's almost 5 and hasn't had to go to ER since. Whew.

Sierra: Sierra was about 3 years old and we had chili one day for lunch. It was on the weekend and it was a perfect day to fly a kite. Sierra was just so excited to fly this kite. Well, again, we had chili and she didn't like it. Jon and I were very firm with her and told her she had to eat it or stay there until supper. It was about 1pm already and Jon and I were finished and Sierra insisted she would not eat it. We finally told her that we were going to fly the kite and would check back with her every once in awhile to see how she's doing. (She was sitting at the kitchen table and could see us out of the patio door.) We could also see her sitting at the table so we knew she was not out and running around the house. About every 15 minutes we'd hollar over to her and ask if she was finished with her chili and she would say "no!". We'd tell her we'd check on her again. Long story short, we stayed outside for about 3 hours and finally we gave up and went in the house. When we told her we were done flying the kite, she said, "mommy was it fun? Did you have a great time? It looked like fun!" and she acted like it was no big deal. I told her that we were done flying the kite and she missed out on it and she said, "Well, I told you I wasn't going to eat my chili, didn't I?" I told her she did and washed her up and let her get out of her chair. Needless to say, I didn't give her chili for supper. She made her point loud and clear. . .

Peace.