Thursday, April 23, 2009

There is definitely a difference between boys and girls!

Not until having our own climbing, yelling, exploring little Henry did we truly believe that there is a difference between boys and girls. To say that staying one step ahead of Henry is challenging is a bit of an understatement. We could probably count all of Mary's boo boo's on one hand, none of which required medical attention. Henry on the other hand has taught us that we must be attentive 100% of the time. He will find the one outlet in the house where we've forgotten to put in the plug protector and have a toy, a finger, a metal object headed straight for it. He's pushed chairs to counters and climbed up. He loves to turn on the water in the sink and "wash" his hands. He's working on turning door knobs, though he's not quite mastered that one out yet. We're thankful that he's only climbed out of his crib once, but realize that will be coming again soon. If we dare forget to shut one of the bathroom doors, he'll be right there, hands in the toilet to remind you of what you've done. Our bundle of joy is constantly trying new things...which leads us to today's adventure.

While sitting at the dining room table in his booster seat having a morning snack, Henry apparently was trying to use his feet to push away from the table. In the blink of an eye, Henry had pushed himself straight back - with booster seat attached to wood chair, now laying on the hardwood floor. Yes, mommy and daddy were both at the table with him - along with HVAC repairman who had just told us that our evaporator coil has a major leak and AC unit needs to be replaced. We all jumped up and quickly discovered that in addition to screaming baby, there was a gash and lots of blood. We promptly walked Jonathan of Cool Masters (who we really like BTW) straight to the door and headed out to the ER at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Good news is that the hospital is about 3 miles away and was not busy. By the time we got to the hospital Henry was happy again. The staff was great. They entertained him with bubbles, stickers and smiles. The most agonizing part of the entire experience was holding down a very strong, screaming baby so that the Dr. could stitch the wound. Three stitches in total. That 5 minutes seemed to last 5 hours. It took two nurses and two parents to hold him down. Now we understand why parents are usually not permitted in the ER when kids need serious treatment. And major kudos to the doctors & nurses who deal with unwilling patients on a daily basis. As soon as the stitches were secured, one of the nurses brought in a popsicle and the crying stopped. Henry was happy again. Whew! A day that we won't soon forget.