Monkey

What a productive day. I woke up this morning with a mission. Clean the house and put up the tree, but have my children help me and not turn into "that" mom that I spend most of my days cleaning the house being. So we cleaned up breakfast, got dressed and starting working. It actually went pretty well. By the time I got to the downstairs I told my kids not to come down and mess up what I was trying to do. I did manage to get the tree up, but the rest of the decorating will have to wait till my patience meter has had time to refill.

Cameron was out of town all day doing Youth Conference in Salt Lake, so I decided I'd take the kids to a free concert by the Army Band over in town. I even started early with baths and showers and was in blow-drying my hair when I hear blood curdling screams from my room. My first reaction is "James, leave her alone." Something I've said at least 50 times today alone. I kiss her better and try to console my poor baby while I sort out what just happened. Apparently they were jumping on my bed, when Emma fell off and hit the nightstand with her shoulder. At least I think it's her shoulder because she won't even let me kiss it better. Knowing she's a little tired I put her in my bed and wrote off the band concert because I was going to have a sleeping child and I was little put out. The only problem with my new plan was that she wouldn't stop crying. So I took her to the kitchen (she wanted a band-aid to make it feel better) and got her some Ibuprofen and grabbed the ace bandage to keep her arm still while I called my friend Kelli who is a nurse. She was thinking it might be dislocated, so I called Kevin, whose a P.A. and my ward, but he was out of the state. Reality started sinking in a trip to the ER was inevitable. I called my friend Carma, who graciously offered to take the other three, so I could take Emma in.

Of course, I have to pick a crazy night at the ER. All the beds were full with broken bones, sawed off fingers, and more that I just don't want to know about. That meant that a little shoulder pain was not a high priority. So we waited in the waiting for a bed, and then we waited for a nurse, and then a doctor. It was a lot of waiting. I do have to put a plug in for a small town. I knew one of the nurses and she was so sweet to make Emma comfortable and found her a toy to play with while we, of course, waited some more.

The crazy thing is, is that as soon as she is finally seen, she doesn't exhibit any pain. She just stares at anyone who touches her or asks her a question. In fact, I'm beginning to think I just wasted a whole bunch of money on bruise. But she does hurt when she uses her arm to much, so maybe it's something. The doctor ordered an x-ray (again, waiting) and seemed almost surprised when her clavicle was actually broken. It's not a major break, so she only has to wear a sling for the next 4-6 weeks. Looks like we're going to have a fun Christmas. Poor little thing. She was so exhausted when we got home she wanted to go right to bed. I'll have to take pictures tomorrow and hope that she's not in a lot of pain overnight. The theme for the day is "No more monkey's jumping on the bed!"