Supermom Chronicles

First, the GOOD:

Faith brought home some computer work she did at school last week. She drew a picture of a pizza using the software, then typed below it:

"the pytsa is good i like the pytsa cole dus to. it is good we ned maour pytsa"

Translation: The pizza is good. I like the pizza. Cole does, too. It is good. We need more pizza.

Another page with a picture of a stick figure playing under the sun had the following caption:

"i wint to the parec and i playd. i had fun i was playing with cole at the parec. mom we had fun at the parec"

Translation: I went to the park and I played. I had fun. I was playing with Cole at the park. Mom, we had fun at the park.

I love her creative spelling and limited use of punctuation. Adorable.

Now, the BAD:

As many of you know, Cole was spinning in the air trying to entertain James & I last Tuesday night, when his forehead came slamming down on our rock hearth. I could see his skull under the cut, so we rushed him to the ER in San Marcos to have his head checked out. Our 4 hour experience there left MUCH to be desired (i.e. being triaged in a timely manner, actually seeing a doctor - yeah, never happened - allowing the local anesthesia time to work then actually placing the sutures in the areas that are blocked...). I vowed out loud to John that in the event any of our kids sustain an injury requiring sutures, but not requiring a skull rad or CT scan, I will do the doctoring.


Here he is loaded up in the minivan on our way to the hospital. He insisted that we NOT move the washcloth from his eye.






We finally made it into an ER bed. He looked so cute with the head bandage the traige nurse gave him. His expression pretty much never changed.



This is 2 days after stitch placement. I think the top of the laceration will leave a scar. Personally, I would have put 3 sutures in it to minimize scarring, but given that he was feeling every bit of the suture placement, I guess I'm glad she only put in 2.




Finally, the UGLY:

Cole's attitude. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Today has been so disappointing. I had planned to devote the entire day to playing with the kids, going to the park, etc. But Cole ruined it. He peed on the floor twice (one of which James crawled through because he thought it was a game that Cole had his legs spread), pooped in his pants 4 times (yes, he has been potty-trained for quite some time), scattered little balls of PlayDoh all over the floor in 3 rooms then refused to get up off the couch to help clean it up. He screamed and climbed into James' crib this afternoon and prevented him from taking his nap until late in the afternoon. He went into Faith's closet and took down ALL of her clothes from hangers and made a pile on the floor. Also add in the hits, pokes, and pulling of his brother and sister. Yes, he got spankings. Yes, he got time-outs. Yes, I took away privileges. I know all the standard operating procedures of parenting. But nothing worked today. As I type this, he is screaming in the kitchen for no good reason. I'm tapped out. I told John that Cole will be his responsibility for the rest of the night. I cannot take anymore today. Just when I thought his attitude was improving. Damn.