What do you see?

Brady declared yesterday afternoon that the clouds in the sky made for beautiful cloud watching. While to me they looked like typical overcast clouds, Brady and Parker swore that the late afternoon sky was full of animals, Ben 10s, castles, knights, Pokemon and other magical imagery!

Settled on towels with slices of cantaloupe, they welcomed the evening sky together - deep in conversation and wonderfully creative in their sightseeing.

I snapped this photo through the deck door. I wish I could have opened the door and videoed their conversation, but this was a slice of time belonging only to two little brothers.

And Mommy's OK with that, because I see BFFs in the clouds.

Dain Bramage for Valentines Day?

Last night Ginny and Al came for a Valentines dinner, and we had a very nice evening. At 8:15 they were preparing to leave and Parker was playing Superhero Changer - a game whereby he spins in a circle and then 'changes' into various superheroes (Danger Man, Invisible Man, Fire Man, etc.)

We were standing in the kitchen by the desk as Ginny and Al were getting on their coats. Parker spins, loses his balance, falls and smacks his head into the corner of the desk or chair (we can't quite determine which one.) He screamed. Bill reached down and picked him up. He turned him around and Parker had a GOLF BALL SIZED goose egg on his forehead. No shitting - an instantaneous Golf Ball on his head.

He's screaming. I freak out. I have never seen anything like this before. Parker is losing it, and I'm not far behind. Thank God there was a doctor literally in the house.

We put ice on it immediately and lowered him down on the couch so that the blood could dissipate. Apparently when he fell he broke open a vein, and because he didn't break the skin, the immediate rush of blood from his vein into his head created a big, pool of blood in his forehead. Had he broken the skin, the blood would have poured out of his head. Instead, it poured inside his head. Yeah, freak out.

Had Al not been there, we no doubt would have been calling him from the road saying, "Meet us at the hospital!!!" Parker did not lose consciousness and though very upset and weepy, he appeared to be "with it." We kept the ice on it for a long time and then decided that he needed to go to bed. As the tears faded (it's now going on 9:00pm) he was exhausted and falling asleep in my arms. So, Bill picked him up and carried him upstairs - where he promptly said he needed to potty. As he stumbled to the toilet, he began vomiting.

Freak out #2. Al assured us that it was totally normal for kids to vomit after a head bang, and that once or twice is OK. More times than that, and it's time to fear concussion. I later verified that with much online reading from my iPhone! I also verified that even if he did have a concussion, there wouldn't be anything to do but keep him still for a few days and watch for changes in behavior. So, I snuggled down in bed with him and held the ice on his head while he fell asleep. I came downstairs, poured another (BIG) glass of wine, and started surfing for information on head injuries.

After about 45 minutes I decided we needed to wake him up and ask him some questions. Well, have you ever tried waking an exhausted child after 45 minutes of sleep and asking him "How many fingers is Mommy holding?", "Where did you have your birthday party?", "How old are you?", "What is your teacher's name?" .... Let me tell you, they aren't very cooperative - with or without a head injury.

When he finally answered a couple of questions, I relented to Bill's begging that we allow the poor kid to sleep. So I did... for another hour. After more online reading, I decided to interrogate one more time. This time I sat him up, and fed him some Tylenol. We had given him some before heading upstairs, but he promptly vomited it back at us.... maybe it was Bill's chili for dinner. We can't be sure. ;-)

The second time around he was more calm and cooperative, so I let him sleep - of course I woke him again at 1:40am and 4:00am - because that's what Moms do.

As Bill and I went to bed last night we agreed that we would make a call on whether or not to go see Dr. E in the morning. His behavior would be our guide.

This morning at 7:00am Al so lovingly called to check on our little guy. We had cranked the monitor up to its highest sound level, so that we could literally hear him breathing throughout the night. While he turned over a few times, he was calm and still. We reported this to Al and told him that Parker was still asleep. "Good," said the doctor.

About 10 minutes later Parker wandered into our room carrying his top sheet (wet with sweat) and with a huge smile, completely himself in all his adorable, precious ways. Good Morning Sweet Sunshine!!! We asked him how he felt, and he said "Good. I hit my head last night."

And that was it. This morning he has an ugly, though much smaller, goose egg on his forehead, but he is "Parker" in every sense. That said, we're still taking in easy today. It's President's Day and the boys are out of school. Perfect timing for a lazy morning.

Part of me wishes we had taken a photo of him last night. Part of me is glad we didn't. I'll opt instead for a happy video snippet.

A mom's heart breaks each and every time her children hurt, and my heart pounded hard in my chest for hours last night. But as a new morning began and Parker so sweetly wandered to our bedside, my heart quieted and filled with gratitude.

Thank you, Amen

The Amazing Minds of Children

There are so many random moments when I gaze at my children and wonder, "What were you thinking?"

More often than I wish to recall, my thought has an exasperated, angry exclamation mark at the end. Those are not the most memorable to me.

The moments I love to ponder are those that are asked with a truly open and wondering mind...

What were you thinking? How did your growing and developing brain capture that thought, action or phrase?

And back to me, how do I foster and encourage more?

This afternoon Parker worked happily at writing his Valentines Day cards to his classmates. He is writing the recipient's name and his name on each card. With 18 kids and 2 teachers, that's a lot of work for a just-turned-four-year-old.

When we decided to stop for the day, he wanted to join Brady in making some Valentines Day pictures for his Great Grandmas. So off he went drawing a picture about some sort of robot who has red acid that he shoots out of his hands that makes people freeze (haven't seen that Hallmark card, yet?)

Anyway, I asked him to write "LOVE, PARKER" on the top. He decided he would rather write it on the bottom. I cautioned that perhaps it would be hard to read over the "red acid," but he persisted. Upon learning that I was correct, he reached up to the top of the paper to write the words. He had a hard time reaching the top of the paper, so he turned it upside down. Realizing that he had turned the paper upside down, he figured that he must write backwards so that the message would be legible when the paper was turned right-side-up.

I looked over at what he had done, and he clearly explained to me that because the paper was upside-down, he wrote backward so we could see it. Then he looked closer at the paper, looked puzzled, looked at me and said, "That seems funny. It's still backwards!"

He actually wrote each letter perfectly backward, from right to left. An exact mirror-image of proper writing.

To him, his reasoning was perfectly sound, and he was confused about why it didn't work as he had intended.

To me, I wondered in amazement at the open and receiving nature of his little brain. When I asked him to re-explain it to me on camera, I of course didn't get the same focused and sound response.

This picture was taken looking into the living room mirror. The picture is of Parker's reflection.


That's OK. His mind is apparently busy debating Euclidean Versus Non-Euclidean Geometry.

We'll give him a hall pass on this one.

Who Says?

Who says that white boys can't dance? I beg to differ...


Go Brady! Go Brady! Go Brady!

A Bad Idea?

While I love the way the morning sun warms the back of my house, shining in brightly through the kitchen door and windows, perhaps it wasn't the BEST idea to leave Parker's Name Masterpiece on the window this morning.

It was made so artistically last night from the Bendaroos he received from O & Z for his birthday that I thought it would be fun to leave it for "just a bit."

The morning sun appears to have baked it into a sticky waxing residue. Oops. Where's the windex?

Parker Says it Best

While I will certainly follow up with pictures from Parker's multi-day birthday festival, I'll let HIM wish HIMSELF a Happy Birthday!


Yes, dear Parker, you truly are loved!