First Snow and First Stitches (Almost)

The boys have been waking up excruciatingly early lately. Like the 6:00 hour. Which is way too early for this mama. Anyway, I was half asleep on the couch one morning and they were happily playing until the sun came up. Then I started hearing them repeatedly yell, "It's SNOWY TIME!" 

Then Eli ran past me trying to get his coat on and asking where his gloves were and I was completely confused by his sudden interest in winter attire. Then Eli informed me it was snowing. I jumped off the couch in unbelief to see for myself. It still seemed way too early for the first snowfall. Sure enough the ground was dusted white and little flakes were falling from the sky.

I convinced the boys to just watch the snow out the window until at least 7:30, and then their patience had run dry and they demanded to be out playing in the flurries.

As soon as we went outside, Eli plugged in the Christmas lights. He's been waiting all month for it to snow because he's been associating snow with Christmas. 

The 7 AM snow playing was luckily quick because the air was brisk with the sun barely out for the day.

We tried again later in the afternoon with a few extra layers on and a little more snow covering the ground. Eli's idea of playing in the snow is shoveling the driveway. He loves putting himself to work on anything he's ever seen Jeff do.

Carson was in for the fun as well.

I'm not a big hot chocolate drinker, but after spending the morning out in the cold on the first snowy day of the year, hot chocolate just seemed like the right thing to do when we got inside and needed to be warmed up.

I handed the boys their hot chocolates and a handful of marshmallows. Then Eli caught me by surprise by asking, "Mom, can I put all my marshmallows in my coffee?"

What?????? After much probing, I could not weasel out of Eli where he had heard about coffee, but I did take the opportunity to give Eli his first lesson on the Word of Wisdom as we finished up our hot cocoa.

Last Monday I started getting a scratchy throat and by Wednesday I had completely lost my voice. Like totally and completely. I only spoke out of absolute necessity and when I did, I could only speak in a whisper.

With the winter weather and my sickness keeping us locked in the house all week, I used my pent up energy one day to make a nice dinner and bake my first pumpkin-y treat of the season. The boys were in the kitchen with me and we were jamming out to some prematurely played Christmas music (which I am usually opposed to, but made an exception for the sake of my pumpkin dessert), and we were all having a great afternoon in the kitchen.

Until...BAM!

Carson had reached over the counter to grab something and as he was getting his footing back on his chair, he missed and fell straight to the ground. Well. Not quite straight to the ground because the bottom of his chin slammed into the counter on the way down. I've become an expert in deciphering Carson's spills. I can immediately take into account the height he fell from, the speed at which he fell and the body part that first smacked the ground to tell if he will either A) hop right up, B) come away uninjured but need a hug or C) need medical attention.

Due to the height of the fall and the smack on the way down, I was definitely anticipating a C situation when I bent down to assess the damages. Sure enough, he had blood SPURTING out of his chin. Okay not really spurting, but his chin was bleeding and it wasn't pretty.

I kept my cool and tried to calm Carson down as I inspected the wound. It wasn't too wide, but it was pretty deep. His chin had split open with the fall, and I had heard of two other kids in our ward who have had similar injuries and both required stitches, so I gave Jeff a quick call.

Only to remember I didn't have a voice.

I tried to explain to Jeff over Carson's screaming that Carson may need stitches, but I wasn't sure. Jeff came home to see for himself if I was just being dramatic or if the situation really called for a medical professional.

I have lived my whole motherhood life trying my hardest not to be that mom who takes her kids into the doctor over every cough, scratch and runny nose. Mostly because we have to pay full price for those doctor visits, but also because I just hate going into the doctor and having the nurses look at me like I'm THAT mom.

So I kept assessing Carson's chin and trying to determine what constituted stitches. I eventually broke down and called the doctor as it was nearing 5:00 and I didn't want to miss our opportunity to get him stitched up if that was what we needed to do.

And then I remembered I didn't have a voice.

I raspily tried to explain my situation to the first person I talked to. She transferred me over to a nurse and I had to reexplain myself. Then she transferred me over to the after hours nurse so I could for a third time whisper out the events of our afternoon. It was a very unfortunate day to not have a voice.

Finally, after just wanting an answer to the question "What constitutes needing stitches?" I got the reply, "Well is it a scratch or a gaping wound?" I could sense judgements from the nurse of thinking I was one of the overreactive moms I have lived my life so vigorously trying not to be. "Well it's definitely more than a scratch, but I don't know if I'd call it gaping." I replied. "Better bring him in just to be safe."

Jeff got home just after that and as Jeff was inspecting the wound, Carson kept looking up and with each upward motion of his head, the sore would split completely open and we decided he needed to be seen.

Jeff took Carson into the doctor and I stayed home with Eli. Luckily the doctor was able to glue his split chin closed so we walked away from the whole incident without stitches. But I have a feeling this whole experience was only a sign of things to come...especially after we add a third rowdy boy to the mix!