The Dangerous Summer

This summer is turning out to be quite dangerous.

It started last week with a near drowning (ok - maybe a little overdramatic) at the pool. Caden, who is only 2 and cannot swim, has become very comfortable in the water with his arm floaties. He spends most of his time jumping in the pool, then getting out, then jumping in the pool, then getting out, then jumping in the pool, then getting out...you get the picture.

So Kerry took the kids to the pool last week and Caden immediately started to wander off while she was getting his floaties out of the bag. Before she knew it, he was at the other end of the pool and jumped in, and of course sank to the bottom. Kerry raced to the other end, jumped in after him, and brought him out. He was a little shaken but did a good job of holding his breath. We wonder if he was just waiting to float back up like he usually does. He was a bit shaken, but still managed to swim later.

In the process, Kerry bruised her heel pretty good. A trip to the doctor a few days later confirmed that nothing was broken, but she is still hobbling around on crutches.

Tonight, we went to Mike and Holleigh's for dinner and to let the kids play. Their house backs up to the neighborhood pond which has a sidewalk all around. The kids went for a ride after dinner with the parents chasing after them. Collin was slowed down when his chain came off, so he had to wait for me while the rest of the kids rode down around the corner and into a wooded area. After I fixed Collin's bike, he took off to catch up. What he didn't realize is that the kids were stopped and playing beside the path. Collin was going to fast and crashed hard. Mike was with all the kids and immediately scooped him up and carried him to me. I could tell right away that he needed stitches. His chin had a nasty gash about 1" long. It was split wide open and of course he was screaming pretty good.

After we got him to the house and cleaned up, I took him to AcuteKids, a great little emergency center for kids. This played out just like the first time he got stitches in his chin. They wrapped him in a sheet so he couldn't move, the a nurse and I held him down while they gave him some numbing shots in his wound. That resulted in huge screams and lots of tears. Once they were finished with the shots, however, he managed to calm down and didn't cry when they put the actual stitches in. All in all I was very proud of him.