Adjusting

Brooks is doing just great with his cast. I was worried the first and second day when all he would do was attempt crawling and rolling around on the floor.

The third day he went to school and learned how to use push toys to keep up with the other kids.

After that he figured out how to limp around, play outside, and collect acorns with Birdie.

And now...

The cast really hasn't slowed him down much. He still tries to climb on things and jump off of things. Every once in a while he'll point to his and remind me about his leg by saying, "Big Owie, Mom." And the other night he got such a kick out of this: "Look Dad. I broke leg." He said it about 20 times. There have been a couple of times when he reaches his hand in his cast and asks to take it off. I started telling him that the doctor has to take it off. So now when we mention his cast he finishes with, "Doctor take off." In the car the other day I let him color his cast with crayons and then I realized a crayon was missing - we then had to talk about how we don't put things in our cast.
The hardest part about this whole thing has been keeping him clean. He can't get his cast wet at all! We can't even put it in a plastic bag to put him in the bath. We have to put him on the kitchen sink and bath one body part at a time the best we can. Needless to say that he isn't getting a bath every night...it's too much work. But his cast is already started to stink and he still has two more weeks! I can't wait to put him in the bathtub at the end of all of this.

Big Owie!

Okay...here's the whole story:
We were in Lakeway at Chad's sister's house and we walked down to the park. Brooks loves trying to be "big" like his cousins, so of course he wanted to try the monkey bars. We saw him climbing the stairs and Chad went over to help him. He hung on to the bars for a few seconds and then let go. Chad grabbed his hand to support him, but Brooks slipped a bit, and ultimately just fell wrong. The ground under him was slightly slanted and he hit the ground "just right". He started crying immediately, and it was a very unfamiliar cry. I held him and went to sit on the bench. He started grabbing at his shoe like he desperately wanted it off of his foot. I took his shoe off and he started grabbing his toes. I thought maybe he broke a toe or something. We took him back to the house and put some ice on it. The whole time he was whimpering and grabbing his foot. All he wanted to do was be held. We tried to get him to stand and he wouldn't put any pressure on his leg. All these symptoms combined led us to Emergency Care. We were the only ones there so we got right in. The doctor felt around and predicted a sprang but called for x-rays to be sure. I couldn't go in the x-ray room since I'm pregnant, so I was forced to sit outside and listen to my baby cry while they had to twist and turn his leg for pictures. I cried too. The doctor came back and told us that Brooks had a spiral fracture on his tibia.
Definition: A spiral fracture (a.k.a. torsion fracture) is a bone fracture resulting from the affected bone being twisted apart. The spiral fracture will look like a corkscrew type which runs parallel with the axis of the broken bone. Spiral fractures seldom occur when the person is not moving.
For children, mishaps such as falling down the stairs or sports injuries may cause a spiral fracture.

They put a splint on him and told us to keep him off his feet until we could get a cast on:

Birdie was in town so she came by on Monday to stay with Brooks and keep him entertained. She came over with 3 new movies and a Magnadoodle:

We got in to see the Orthopedic Surgeon Monday afternoon to get a cast on Brooks' leg. The doctor did more x-rays to get a closer look, and confirmed what the original doctor had said...Spiral Fracture. He mentioned that if we lived on an island somewhere Brooks would just limp around for a while and the bone would just heal. But since we live in the United States a cast was the plan. Brooks did great while they put the cast on - we borrowed a friend's itouch to keep him busy. They did have to put the cast past his knee so that his knee wouldn't rotate and irritate the fracture. Kind of a bummer. But Brooks came home and felt well enough to roll around on the ground with Daddy:

He was even back to his silly-self:

Brooks showing off his "big owie":

The doctor said that he should only need the cast for 3 weeks. Hopefully Brooks will learn to get around in that time. Today he crawled around a lot, and tonight we practiced walking while holding mommy or daddy's hand. He's being such a trooper! He does get frustrated some times, but overall he is doing well.

So long crib!

So maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this than it really is...but my baby is growing up! This weekend marked THE WEEKEND to make the switch. Here's the story:
On Friday night we spent lots of time playing in Brooks' new room and reading books in his big boy bed. While Brooks and Daddy played, I emptied out his old room so that it's ready for all of Delaney's things.

After dinner and a long walk (to really wear him out) we got all ready for bed. We really hyped up the big boy bed. We called Gammy and Pops and told them so they could help us hype it up even more.
Brooks said one last good-bye to the crib...

...and moved into his big boy bed.

Chad and I both laid in bed with Brooks and read a story and sung some songs. When we went to leave he started to get out of bed, so we both reminded him to stay in his big boy bed. He said, "O-tay Mommy. O-tay Daddy. I tay in bed." As soon as we walked out the door he started crying. Now - Brooks NEVER cries at bed time. He usually sings and talks to himself but I can't remember the last time he cried. It broke my heart, but I resisted going in. He only cried for a minute and then talked for a little bit before falling asleep. We went in and checked in on him later and he looked so cute cuddled up in that big bed. AND he looked so little! In the morning I had to go in to get my glucose test so Chad was with Brooks when he woke up. He actually slept in til 8:30! Chad said that he talked for a little bit, and when Chad went in there Brooks was laying in his bed smiling. He did well for nap time, too. He climbed right up and went right to sleep. He ended up taking a 4 hour nap! When he woke up we heard him: "Daddy! Where are you?" So cute. Tonight he was ready to go. He even walked into his old room and said, "Laney's room!"
I'm so proud of him for being such a big boy, and I'm a little sad that he's growing up so fast. Time really does just fly by!