A Broken Arm Requires Beach Therapy

Today my little 16 month old flower, Lily got a cast for a fractured Distal Radius aka "wrist fracture." Insert 50 crying sad face icons. She has been climbing on tables, chairs, falling off things, sometimes crying sometimes not. She had been pretty fussy the past few days and had a few memorable falls this weekend and one even more memorable one last week. I had noticed her favoring her left hand, being fussy and irritable. I thought she had maybe bruised her little wrist, but nothing lead me to believe she had done anything serious. That is until yesterday when I went to put her sweater on her and as I reached in to pull her little arm through she shrieked a sort of cry that hits you right in the heart. Her little face winced up in pain and she pulled her arm back with force. I put Lily and Ella right in the car and called my pediatrician as I was driving to her office. Luckily this is the first time I have done this, so they fit me right in.

Sure enough, Doc thought it looked swollen and wanted me to get to an orthopedist asap. This morning Don and I juggled schedules so I could run Lily to get x-rays and he could take Ella to school. He then rushed over to meet me at the Doctor. Sure enough there was a fracture. One long hour, many tiny tears and one bright pink cast later we were home with our little Lily flower fast asleep in her crib. She passed out from this emotional and no doubt painful experience.

Then the greatest thing happened. She woke up, happy, cheery in fact looking for her big sister. I think it helped that Ella thought the cast was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Maybe even a bit envious. My sweet little Lily was back. She was adjusting nicely to this new accessory and was quick to lift it up to show Elle.

It couldn't have been a more beautiful day, crisp but sunny and an amazing breeze. Don ended up taking the rest of the day off to make sure Lily was ok, and probably more accurately to make sure I was ok. Once we saw Lily bopping around acting like her normal self we realized we needed to get outdoors. So myself, Don, Ella, Lily and our two pups Belly and Lulu piled into the mini van for a beach adventure. It was the best medicine and a great way to connect as a family. We dug in the sand, threw a makeshift ball for Belly to retrieve 500 times, searched for "sheshouws" as Lily calls it and we somehow turned around a pretty crummy day and made it positively memorable.

Mommy Mantra: Make your kids an incredible Part of your life, not your WHOLE life.

Tonight was a makeshift dinner night. Progresso Italian Wedding Meatball soup for the girls with Neapolitan ice cream for dessert. Don had left over Chinese, I had Greek yogurt and granola. Ella ate her soup, ice cream, Don's Moo Shu Pork and 5 big bites of my yogurt with granola. I think she is growing, or maybe just becoming a strange foodie of sorts. Anyway you look at it, she didn't go to bed hungry.