Update #2

Robert did go to work today. Getting ready was so much harder than I think either of us thought/expected. Anytime his sling is off, he is in a great deal of pain due to the shifting of those bones. Once those start healing, I think it will get easier (I really, really hope!). He got pretty queasy from all the pain and had to stop for a while at one point. He is doing okay today, just very tired. But, he is taking it easy while there.

Update on Robert

I am sorry I didn't post last night. I know some of you may have been looking for an update on the orthopaedist visit. It went fairly well. He said it is a very bad break, it has 4 pieces that are just barely holding on. He said it was caused by some type of twisting motion. He still wants to pursue non-surgical if possible, which we are happy to try. He said if Robert needs surgery, then he will have to put plates in his arm. The bone was mostly lined up correctly, but it was angling some toward the back of the arm, which isn't good. Robert went to a different place to get fitted for the brace and splint contraption. This went terribly. We assumed that he would be fitted at the doctor's office and knew they would give him a shot or something, so we did not have any pain medication with us. Robert was in a lot of pain during this process, and the guy who fitted him was pretty incompetent and kept having to take it off and on and readjusting it. Poor Robert fell asleep in the car on the way home. He had to rest for a while after all that, but the brace/sling seems to be helping with the pain. We are going back to the orthopaedist on Friday for another x-ray to make sure the bone is angling back to where it needs to be. Robert is going to try to go to work today. Getting ready is going to be interesting... I am sorry I didn't post last night. We were so exhausted. But, thankfully we both rested well last night (still in recliners).

Really, who does that?

As many of you already know, Robert broke his upper right arm last night. He was playing in the yard with Eric, slipped on the wet leaves, and fell into the fence. We spent 6 and a half hours in the ER last night. Eric is staying with Robert's parents. We are going to the orthopedic specialist in a few minutes to see if he can set it or if it will require surgery. His arm is currently partially set until we could see the specialist. He has been in a great deal of pain. We would appreciate all of your prayers. Here are the x-rays. If you click on the picture, it will fill up your whole screen. But seriously, who is playing ball in the backyard with a 3 year old and then breaks his humerus?

Two infinities and Buh-lah!

Eric received a Buzz Lightyear from Shane and Trenna that he loves. When he first got it, he would say "to infinity and buh-lah". A few days later, he started saying the "beyond" correctly. But, I noticed a day or two ago that he was looking around for "two infinities". He would see a group of two things, and say, "look, momma, two infinities". I have no idea what he thinks an infinity is. I guess both of those words are not in a 3 year old's vocabulary. He does another thing with his Buzz that I find precious. It has a laser button on the arm. I noticed he would push the button, and then he and Buzz would go on rescue missions together to try to go rescue the animal. There are 3 sounds the laser makes, and Eric thinks they are all animal sounds (mostly in the bird family). Thank you, Diego, for convincing my child that every sound is an animal sound and not necessarily a destructive weapon sound. :)

Eric's favorite things about Christmas

Eric had a lot of fun with Christmas this year. By far his 2 favorite things were putting ornaments on the tree and filling up his Santa's workshop. The workshop is like a countdown calendar, and there is one magnetized fabric piece for the 25 days of Christmas.



He adored putting ornaments on the tree. It was his absolute favorite thing to do. We put about 20 ornaments a day on the tree for a LONG time (I have a lot of ornaments). And then if we got any new ones, we immediately went home and put those on the tree. He filled all the lower branches, with 5 or 6 ornaments on each branch. I would come behind him and move some of those to the top. He loved to look at them all and lie down under the tree to glance up through the branches.

Reading and Adding

In case any of you didn't see over Christmas, Eric can add numbers 1-5 (ex 3 + 4, 2 + 5, etc). Robert taught him to do this by using the fingers on his two hands. He used his hands for the first couple of hours, and now he just pictures it in his head and counts it. It is pretty cool.

And, he read his first book on December 16. It was the first BOB book. It is pretty basic - Mat sat. Sam sat. Mat sat on Sam, etc. But I was pretty impressed. He has been showing signs that he was ready to read, so I just tried it out, and he read it all by himself. He wanted to try the next one right away, but then he floundered some. I think 1 book at a time is enough for him. I plan to get another one out this weekend and see how he does. Here are a couple of pictures of him reading.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I will try to do some updating later this week. Here is a family picture of us from Christmas Eve.