The cast is on!

Today was the big day, and now Bella has a real cast on her arm. I'll give you just one guess as to what color she picked! She is much more mobile in this cast, even though it is heavy. When we first were leaving, she wanted the sling back on because her arm was hurting after having to move it some to get it set for the cast. But by this evening, playing with some friends, she was running all over the place with no sling, just cast. This giant, neon-pink invader of our household... I'll have to get her to name it tomorrow so I don't feel so resentful towards it! She does have several signatures on it already, so that makes it a little friendlier...

Those who know Bella know that she does not have a shy bone in her body. I really don't think the girl has ever been nervous about anything in her life so far. So, at the age of 4 3/4, she was completely side-swiped by the nerves that hit her today with this casting. Of course, when she fell and we had to go to the hospital, she was nervous, but the shock from the injury overpowered any nervousness. Today she was hungry, but kept telling me her stomach was really hurting, and by the time we got home she was really shaky. But my Mom was here for it, and all it took was sitting on Nanny's lap for about 10 minutes to clear it all up. I kept telling her that what she was feeling was because she was nervous and that it would go away, but I'm not sure she believed me until it did. Then she jumped up and said, "Mama, I feel a lot better! I think I settled down! I can eat now!"



She did such a great job at the hospital. Of course, she talked the RN's ear off, and because of that we found out that she grew up with one of our dear, wonderful friends. So that gave us all

something to talk about. And when she was all done, Lauren, the RN, gave her some of her very own, all-natural trail mix for a treat (Bella was asking for a treat, but couldn't have the nasty junk suckers that they had to give out). For those who don't know, along with food allergies that limit what she can eat, I keep them away from most artificial things as much as I can.

My favorite saying - "You are what you eat. Don't be artificial."

That aside, I have a baby boy who just woke up hungry, so I'll cut this a little short...

Princess Bella One-Arm

Oh, how I wanted to take the camera into the ER room with me (Room #15, Bella would tell you - just in case you were wondering). And oh, you should have seen the look on the nurse's face when I asked if I could. I am a mother in distress with a child in a traumatic situation, people - let me deal with it however I want! Alas, my camera sat useless at Judy's house while we trundled through our ordeal. And the x-ray pics that we brought home on a CD have a stinking copywrite on them. They think of everything... So I now have to take pictures of my little Princess Bella One-Arm, dressed in her fashionable princess attire given to her by Regan. Dear Regan, who decided Bella had had so much fun with Regan's own dress up clothes before she fell and broke her arm that she should have her own. First we have fake smile, then two in action pics of me being turned into a frog. Ribbit.

Bella was feeling much, much better today. She even came out this evening and "mowed" with Kane and I (them following behind me with their little mowers). Then she made another appearance just before bed when I was weeding the garden, and decided she needed to pick some salad greens and go have a salad. But not long after being asleep in bed, she awoke crying and I couldn't get her settled down. Assuming her arm was hurting, I kept trying to get her into comfortable possitions. Finally I starting asking her questions to break her out of her histerics. "Does your eye hurt? Does your toe hurt?" I was trying to get her to say that her arm was hurting so we could rationally deal with it. But when she just sobbed "NO-O" to every question I popped in a new one - "Did you have a nightmare?" Ah, finally I hit a nerve when she hesitated, took a deap breath and said "Yeah, I think so." Then with one more deap breath, she turned on her side and fell sound asleep. Apparently she needed to get that off of her chest. Now I have to wait patiently for morning to come to see if she remembers it. I wonder if she was dreaming of her fall, or of the hospital... It may just be one of her typical dreams, though, like my favorite latest, where the wild pack of teddy bears stole our bird seed and we had to chase them all the way to Florida and out onto an island in the ocean to get it back. If you think about what that would be like to a 4 yr. old brain, it really is quite scary. That aside, she is now sleeping quitely, lost in a world of dreams. I wonder, in her dreams, does she have a broken arm?

Down for the Count...

Yesterday we had a WONDERFUL morning. We went hiking with a friend Judy and her children Regan and Aidan in Vienna, WV at McDonough Wildlife Refuge. I am so thankful for that morning! We had a great hike, then headed back to Judy's house for lunch. The kids played, we ate a spectacular meal, and it all went downhill from there :-). Bella headed out to the kiddie pool while I was getting Kane's trunks on. Judy and I gathered our cookies and tea, and then I heard Bella yell out "Mama!!! Help me! Mama, somethings wrong!" over and over. When I got to her I thought she was holding her foot, and assumed she had been stung. When she stood up, though, she said, to my prying questions of what had happened, that something was wrong with her arm. As I'm sure you've guessed by now, the minute I looked at it I knew it was broken. My baby, my sweet baby Bella with a broken arm. The most heartbreaking part of the following 4 hours was when we got home and she was talking on the phone to another friend realizing what her limitations would be... "Um, Mama, I won't be able to go swimming, will I? And I won't be able to play on the swing set? But I can still jump on the trampoline, right? No? Can I still play in the sandbox?" And by now the tears were welling up for both of us. And that night, with her safely tucked in bed, her casted arm propped up over her little tummy, I finally allowed myself to break down and cry sobbing cries. I tried to explain to Adam that I wasn't just crying for the pain that she's going through with her arm broken. Yes, it will heal and she will be just fine. I was crying for all the other pain that she will inevitably go through, and all the times that she will get her heart broken. And I was crying for all of the other mothers who have ever had to see their child endure more pain than a broken arm, or who have had to survive through their child's death.... But, of course, the brain of a man can't quite grasp such silliness. So now I look at the pictures of Bella's last fun, summer-hiking, running-with-friends kind of day for quite awhile. As I'm sure every parent knows, I wish for all the world that I could take it all from her and carry it myself. But she is doing a stellar job of dealing so far. She is getting bored and a little sad, but I am so proud of how she is handling it, especially of how she did at the hospital. She is such a strong, smart, courageous little girl. After my sob-fest, Adam said something quite profound and deep - it is in these kind of times that we get to see that we are doing something right, when our children show a strength of character that we have implanted in them. And it is in this that our greatest love for them shows through. And I love her and am very thankful that we could spend such a wonderful day together with each other and with friends before we had to tackle this new challenge.