On Sunday, Ryan and Cole were invited to a bowling birthday party.  It was the first time they had ever been bowling, and the were oh-so excited to go.

Ryan thought it was great, he got to put on the ever-popular bowling shoes.  Cole wanted a pair too, but they didn’t have a pair small enough, so the lady said he could wear his Crocs.

Cole gave it his best shot, but I think he is still a little too young to get the whole concept.  One of the workers brought out a ramp, where Cole could just roll the ball down.  He liked that-but he liked moving the levers back and forth on it more than bowling.  He did slow down long enough for me to capture him with his goofy smile:

The first time Ryan was up, he placed the ball down, and then kicked it with the sole of his foot- good thing it wasn’t with his toe!  He quickly caught on, and he had a little warm up move, and one he did afterwards.  I was happy for him, that he usually knocked down several pins- he was really into it!

 The warm up

 Watching

 Doing the post-move

For some reason when it was my turn to bowl, the automated bumpers stayed up.  I haven’t bowled in such a long time, I was happy the bumper was up.  But as a testament to my awful bowling, Ryan beat me!  He’s a 4.5 year old, who had never bowled, getting a higher score than his ol’ mom- even with the bumpers up!  Guess I need to work on my bowling game-in my spare time. 

The birthday boy’s mom, mentioned to us the alley we were at, had night bowling where they turn off the lights, and light up the lanes, and all of that.  Ryan heard that, and has been asking everynight when we get to go night bowling.  We are hoping we can take him soon.

I wonder if I can have them leave the bumpers up for me.  At least it will be dark, and no one will actually see my bowling ball hit the bumper.  On the other hand, maybe I’ll have them take the bumpers down for Ryan, and leave them up for me. Then we will have an even match up.   :-) 

It is so fun to see your child enjoy something, and just have 100% fun.   Even if I am an awful bowler, it was still the best time I ever had bowling.

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I wish I had a brilliant or at least somewhat exciting update for you, but I don’t. 

We’ve been working on the house, and trying to get everything else done in daily life that must get done, like work, errands, parent, spend time with the boys, etc.  I still haven’t started packing yet, but that is soon to change.  Joe started bringing home boxes the other day, so now that fun chore is on my plate.

I really don’t mind, but there is always way more stuff you realize you have.  I am hoping we can donate or just get rid of the stuff we haven’t used in years, and be done with it.  Like the extra microwave that has been sitting the pantry now, for eight years.  If our microwave ever broke, we had a spare.  Except it hasn’t and we have had a microwave sitting in the pantry for eight years.

I usually blog at night- but I have been so tired physically and mentally, I think I have blogger’s block.  If you don’t see very many posts here in the upcoming weeks, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth.  But with moving, fixing up the house, and the upcoming holiday season, I’m not sure how much time or motivation I will have to blog.  Please continue to check in- I know I’ll get my blogging mojo back eventually.  :-)  You can find me on Twitter, and I seem to be able to post 140 character items, much easier and regularly than actual blog posts these days.

I pinkie swear I will post pictures of the new house and the progress we have made.  Joe finished painting the boys’ rooms today, and he’s going to start on our bedroom tomorrow.  I placed the carpet order last week, and that should be installed right after Thanksgiving.  We are ordering our engineered hardwood flooring tomorrow.  We have decided on a honey hickory color which is a golden brown- not too dark or light.  We should have it around Thanksgiving.  It has to cure at room temperature for a week, so Joe should be able to install the floor, the beginning of December.

The brand we are getting has a locking system, so there is no need to glue or nail the pieces together.  Joe is optimistic he can install it in a few days, rather than a few weeks.  So it appears we are on schedule to move into the house by the end of December.  Not sure where we will end up having Christmas- in the old house, or the new one, but Ryan is already wondering about the tree this year, and how Santa will find us.  :-)  Cole has just been talking up a storm and telling us he wants Santa to bring him a dump truck.

I’m also trying to plan Ryan’s fifth birthday party, which always sneaks up on me, since it is just two weeks after Christmas.  I booked the venue this year in JULY- so that is set.  Now I just have to get save the dates out to people, and hope I’m not over the number of guests we are allowed to have.  Guess I had better double check on that.  Ryan of course, is just thrilled to be turning five.  I’m wondering where the time went, and how did my ‘baby’ become a little boy, who is just weeks away from being five years-old?

My mom is coming out for a visit the week of Christmas and will be able to spend an entire evening, and the next day with us.  I’m excited for that, and to be able to show her our new house.  Ryan and Cole are excited to bake cookies for Santa with Nana. 

So that is all we have been up to.  Stay tuned for another exciting update in the near future. 

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Joe was out of town this week- he came home a day early, so that was nice, but it has been an exhausting week. 

Since we would like to move into our new house, before next spring, I had grand plans this week to remove all of the ugly wallpaper border, and clean the walls, in the three bedrooms in our new house, so they would be ready for Joe to paint this weekend.  

We have decided to hire a professional painter to paint our living room, entry way, and dining room.  The living room has what I think is a 16-foot ceiling, but no, we haven’t measured.  There are some interesting angles in the room as well. 

Furthermore, the previous owners were hunters (no they were not related to Sarah Palin- a little shot of humor- I need it these days, ) and on these tall walls, they had a lot of their catches stuffed, (I believe taxidermy is the correct phrase for this), and mounted on the walls.  Evidently, it takes a lot of nails to hold up stuffed wild game.   I can’t count how many thick nails are in the walls, at various heights, and how many nail holes are in the walls. Did I mention, there is animal hair stuck the one of the walls, oh, about ten-feet up?

Joe is a great painter.  He is meticulous, but you have to have time to be that precise.  Even if he had the time, the nails, holes, and heights of the walls would take sometime to paint.   We found our painter, savior, who will remove all the nails, patch the holes, clean the walls (animal hair included for no extra charge), and then apply two coats of paint.  He has a crew, so it should just be a three or four day project. 

We have to get this area done because we are having hardwood floors installed by none other than Joe.  (We really are lucky he knows how to do all of these projects!)  But we don’t want to install the floor until the walls are painted.  In the master bedroom, and the boys’ rooms, we are having carpet installed, and again, we don’t want to paint with brand new carpet down.

So I thought I’d spend all day Tuesday removing wallpaper border. The border was glued, super-glued, three quarters of the way up on all the walls.  I had forgotten how much I HATE wallpaper.  After five hours, I only had three walls done in the master bedroom.  I didn’t have the right tools either, and I had the duct cleaner there as well..

Ryan had an injury from earlier in the morning, (trust me- you don’t want to know-let’s just say it was in the worst place ever for a little boy, and the teeth of his two year old brother were involved), so he was cranky (but who could blame him?)  and trying to work on a ladder removing wallpaper that is ten years old, with a cranky four-year old, and a curious two-year old who keeps trying to climb up the ladder-is not the formula to get much accomplished.  

After five and a half hours, we headed home.  I had to go to work for half-day on Wednesday, and after I picked up Ryan from school, we went back to the house, and I was able to finish the last wall in our bedroom.  I inspected the wallpaper in the other two rooms, and it was stuck on more firmly than the stuff I had just gotten off. 

After work today, and the nice surprise that Joe was home early, we went to Home Depot, to get a wallpaper scorer and some paint.  Fortunately, Joe has tomorrow off so he can get started in the master bedroom, and after the boys’ music class, I’ll start me vs. the wallpaper-Round 2.

It is a lot of work, and a bit stressful, but it will be worth it.  I can picture the rooms in the colors we picked out- the soft yellows against the wood floors and I get really excited.  The work makes me tired, but I still enjoy it.  

As the boys and I were sitting on a blanket on the floor in the living room, which is just sub-flooring right now, having a picnic on Tuesday, I knew someday when the room had been done for years, and has seen more of its fair share of living, I would always remember sitting there eating PB&J sandwiches with Ryan and Cole. We ate with badly-in need of paint-holes-in-the-walls, with animal hair stuck on them.  Not the most glamorous lunch, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I do plan to post pictures, but I want to post before and after pictures at the same time.  In the meantime, I’ll leave you the paint colors of the rooms a paint consultant helped us pick out, since we are so awful at picking colors:

Colors for the entry way, living room, and dining room:

Yellow Freeze  &    Man on the Moon

Colors for the master bedroom:

 Baja Dunes &       Jade Tint

Boys’ Room: (they both wanted blue)

      Marguerite Blue

(color swatches from myperfectcolor.com)

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I know we all LOVE being mothers 99% of the time, and would not trade it for anything.  We all LOVE our kids like crazy, and could not imagine our lives without them. 

But…what don’t you love about being a mother at times?  I have been thinking about this a lot, and don’t think it is really acceptable for mothers to go around saying what they don’t like about mothering.  We are for the most part expected to be happy, and put on a happy face no matter what. 

So, I decided to devote a blog posting every now and then to “Mommy Confessions.”  You can “confess” something small or something large, and there is NO judgement.   So if you want to get that certain something about motherhood off your chest- this is the place.  After all confession is good for the soul, right? 

My confession is I HATE the park.  I like watching my kids play, but find it so boring.  When my boys were younger, they needed me more to help them play, and that was fun, but now as they are growing and can do more and more by themselves, and don’t need want me to help them play, I still have to keep an eye on them, so it is too hard to read something, or talk to another mother.  So I stand around bored out of my mind.  My favorite part of going to the park, is when it is time to go home.

So there you have my confession, and I feel a lot better- what is yours?

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My sister wrote a blog post about a parenting mistake that she had recently made with her 17-month old daughter.  My sister was trying to get her to eat, and she wouldn’t.  She started throwing a fit, so they put her in time-out.  Turns out, my little niece was only throwing the fit because she didn’t like the tuna fish, my sister was trying to get her to eat.

My sister is a first-time mom, and of course, we all make mistakes like this.  I’ll even let you in on a little secret, little sister…we keep making mistakes even with our second and subsequent children too.

My parenting mistake was on Tuesday night.  I was having a hard time falling asleep, and I had to be up before dawn- like at six for work on Wednesday.  The last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep, it was 2am. 

I woke up at 4:30am, and heard Cole crying a bit.  Sometimes he does this in his sleep, and I usually wait a minute or so, and nine times out of ten, he just goes back to sleep.  Since I had only been sleeping about two and a half hours, I was sooo tired.  I tuned out his cry, and figured he would be back asleep in a minute or so.

As I felt myself falling back to sleep, I could still hear him fussing around.  The next time I woke up, it was a full half-an-hour later, and now Cole was crying out, “Mommy, Mommy!” He was really loud, and upset.  He had not gone back to sleep, and I really resented having to get up to see what the problem was.

When I got to his room, he was standing up in his crib, just sobbing, and saying, “Mommy, Mommy,”  It broke my heart.  I thought he had, had a bad dream.  I picked him up, and he was SOAKED.  He was wet from the top of his shirt, to the bottom of his pants.

Clearly he had, had a bed wetting accident.  To top that off, it was a bit cool in the room, and his blanket was wet too.  I felt awful.  My little boy was soaked from top to bottom in pee, and I couldn’t be bothered to get up to check on him.

I cleaned him up, changed his sheets, and he was eager to get back to sleep.  Before I put him back in his bed, he put his arms around my neck, kissed me and said, “Love me Mommy.”  He says ‘love me’ instead of ‘love you,’ but that just made me feel worse.  He wasn’t trying to interrupt my sleep- he just wanted out of his wet pajamas.

Parenting is like driving to someplace without a map.  Sometimes you nail it right on, and sometimes you hit a bump or two, or three, or more, along the way.  Sometimes you just end up, flat-out lost.  I think about episodes like this, and wonder if this will seem like child’s play, when my boys are teenagers, and we are dealing with very complex issues.

Eventually, even if you are lost for a while, you figure it out, and get going again- ready for the next trip down the parenting road.

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about my preschool dropout, Ryan.  The comments telling me not to worry, were so appreciated, but we felt like we still needed to explore the option.

I suppose I am the one mother who didn’t get the memo that you cannot wait until back-to-school time to register your child for preschool.  Our school district has about six preschools in some of the elementary schools, and I assumed I could register Ryan at the one in the town we are hoping to move to.  WRONG.

When I called, the lady was very nice, but laughed.  She said I had to register for preschool back in January.  What?  I can’t even plan ahead to next week, let alone eight months ahead of time.  She told me they were completely filled, but they would put Ryan on a waiting list. 

I tried the other schools, and it was the same story.  One school that did have an opening, would have been in the farthest possible location from where we live now, and if we move.  The days they had open also did not work with our schedule.  Since I work two days a week, it was going to be tricky at best, to find something that worked.

So, I resigned myself that Ryan was a preschool dropout, and I was going to homeschool him for preschool.  We have been working on his name, numbers, letters, shapes, and colors anyway. Recently, he is starting to pick out a few words out of books that he recognizes, so I thought we were on the right track. 

The director at the farm program where Ryan went last year e-mailed me as well and said she had a few afternoon openings, so I signed him up for some sessions, just so he could be around other kids, and get the experience of being in a class.

But it was still bothering us.  Neither Joe or I, are teachers.  We were worried that we would be missing something.  What if we brought him to kindergarten next year, and he was the only kid that couldn’t do X, because we didn’t enroll him in preschool? But our options were severely limited.

Ryan’s wonderful grandmother (Joe’s mom) came to the rescue.  She told us about a center in town that caters to children with special needs.  She informed us that they have a preschool, where they combine special need kids and non-special needs kids in the classes.  She said it had a great reputation. 

Right off the bat, I loved the idea of that type of environment for Ryan.  I think he is at the perfect age to start learning about differences and in turn, learning tolerance and empathy.  I looked up the website, and was thrilled to see they were advertising at the top of their page, that they still had openings for non-special needs kids in his age group.  I read about the program, and became even more impressed.

We called the school the next day, took a tour, and even though they normally request that the four-year olds attend school four days a week, they said they would still love to have Ryan come for two days a week.  Because of my work schedule, there is no way I could bring him four days a week, but with some help from Ryan’s grandparents we will be able to do the two days a week.

The school was amazing.  All the teachers have bachelor degrees and or masters in early childhood education.  All the assistants at a minimum, have certificates in early childhood education too.  The ratio in the class is half the kids with special needs, and half the kids without.  There is one teacher, and two teaching assistants.  They are very organized and send home a lesson plan every week, so you know what is happening and what the kids are learning.  They have field trips.  One is coming up to a farm to see animals, take a hayride, and pick vegetables.  It just seemed like the perfect place for Ryan.

Today was his first day, and he was excited to go.  He told me he was a little nervous, but he was happy that he wouldn’t have to take a nap, since he’d be at school.  When we arrived, the director walked us to the class, where he met some of his classmates.  Ms. A., (his teacher), gave him a hug, and told him she’d show him where he could put his backpack.  Ryan barely gave me a hug, and he was off with Ms. A. 

Cole and I watched for a minute, and Ms. A., sensing I  needed another good-bye, pointed Ryan in my direction.  My little boy gave me a hug, and he was back off to Ms. A. Outside the classroom, there is a one-way window, and the director told me I could stay and watch as long as I wanted.  Cole was getting tired, so we left. 

It is odd turning your child over to someone else, to take over teaching them, even for just a few hours a day.  But this school seems so nurturing and supportive-it felt right. 

When we picked Ryan up, he had, had a blast.  He told us about the stories they had read, the snack they had, and the toy front-loader he got to ride during recess.  He was also happy to see that his name in his cubby, was attached to a yellow triangle.  That was very important. 

Ms. A. called us tonight and told us how comfortable Ryan seemed and how well he did today.  His first day couldn’t have gone better. It should be a fun year, and I can’t wait to see and hear about all the exciting new things he learns.  Here are a few pictures before we left for the first day:   

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I have not been great at announcing when I have been a guest poster at other blogs, so I am dedicating this post to the trips that A Mama’s Blog has taken around the blogosphere recently.

One of the surprises that I was thrilled with, was MomWebs Blog reviewed A Mama’s Blog.  You can read the review at: Meet A Mom Blogger: A Mama’s Blog

I am a monthly blog contributor at API Speaks (the blog for Attachment Parenting International), and this month I wrote, Am I An Attached Parent?

On Wednesday, the post I wrote, Sarah Palin, Feminism, and Double Standards, was run on the blog, ‘Lil Mommy Goes to Washington.

Last month I guessed blogged at Crunchy Domestic Goddess, while she was on vacation, with What’s in Your Skin Care Products?

I also guessed blogged at This Military Mama, on Vaccines, Autism, & Government Liability, while she was at BlogHer. 

Mile High Mama’s accepted one of my favorite posts ever,- No Safe Secrets, but they renamed it, No Safe Secrets with the F-Bomb.  (I like their title better.)

Eco Child’s Play accepted two of my submissions for guest posts.  The first one was ran during their special Labor of Love Series, and this was a post I wrote just for the occasion.  It has not been posted on A Mama’s Blog, and it is, Labor of Love: My VBAC (vaginal birth after a cesarean section) Birth.  If you want to read in detail about my experience with a VBAC, and also in turn, Cole’s birth story. 

The second post for Eco Child’s Play was for World Breastfeeding week, Mother’s Milk: Breastfeeding Beyond Six Months.

If you missed some of these posts at A Mama’s Blog, and want to read them, I hope you will go to the terrific blog it is posted on (I’m not just saying that either because they used my blog posts).  Check out the blog while you are there.  I am sure you will find a lot of other interesting posts, and other information.

Thank you to all the bloggers who allowed me to post some of my writings on their blogs.  I really appreciate it, and you know as soon as I need some guest bloggers, you can expect to hear from me. 

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It seems everyone has their thoughts and opinions about the first Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, these days, and I am no different.

I was surprised when I heard McCain had picked her, but I was also happy that a woman was now on one of the political party’s top ticket.  It didn’t matter to me what ticket she was on- as a woman and a mother, I thought it was a step in the right direction.

If you are a regular blog reader of mine, you may remember the post I wrote in May, about how I felt the media in particular, had portrayed Hillary Clinton in a sexist and discriminatory way, simply because she was a woman.  If I thought that was bad for Hillary Clinton, it has just been beyond belief, the attack the media and blogs have launched against Sarah Palin in just over a week. 

This just makes no sense to me whatsoever.  For years feminists like Gloria Steinem, have been advocating for women that they should be able to have a choice.  They shouldn’t have to give up careers in order to be mothers.  Women should be considered as equals and they should have the same chances and opportunities as men.  One of Gloria Steinem’s quotes I have always liked is, “I’ve yet to be on a campus where most women weren’t worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career.  I’ve yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing.”

There is a woman in the national spotlight, in the running for one of our country’s highest positions, (never mind her politics for a minute) who has combined marriage, children, and a career, and is successful at it.  Instead of feminists like Steinem acknowledging that this is indeed a breakthrough for women, she writes an article for the LA Times (Wrong Woman, Wrong Time) basically saying the only reason Palin was picked by McCain was “to please right-wing ideologues.”   Steinem also asserts “that feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman, but making life more fair for women everywhere.”  

 If Steinem really believed the above statement, why didn’t she make a similar statement about Hillary Clinton?  Hillary Clinton was one woman, as well, running for one job.  How does it make ”life more fair for women everywhere” if Clinton were to be elected president, but it would not make “life more fair for women everywhere”  if Palin was elected vice president?

Steinem continues,

“And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.”

Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd, is becoming a stay-at-home Dad.  Isn’t this what Steinem was hoping for in part when she wrote, ”…until there is a support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it? ”

Futhermore, when a male presidential candidate picks a woman for his running mate, it sends a message to women and to men, that he believes his pick is qualified and capable of being an effective vice president.  What many have considered obstacles and reasons why Sarah Palin should not have been picked, McCain saw the very thing Steinem wants- “a male leader(s) who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it? ”

It seems to me John McCain and the Palin family already figured out, what Steinem wrote about.  Palin’s husband Todd, is equal in the home, and will be home with their children.  In my eyes, the support on a national stage for women, that Steinem talks about Obama and Biden needing to bring, is already here.

Why do we need “male leaders”  to bring support to working women, and to help make men equal in the house, when it is already been in place for years?  Not just with McCain, Palin and her husband, but with the thousands and thousands of working families, where the mother works, and the father stays at home.  It seems like a real insult to working mothers, and stay-at-home fathers.  

I can’t help but wonder if Steinem would feel this way if Palin wasn’t a Republican, but a Democrat?  It makes me wonder if the type of feminism that Steinem has been pushing for, for all these years, has more do with politics than gender?

The most repulsive part of the attacks on Palin have been her character as a mother.  The media and others criticize and judge Palin as a mother. The argument is being vice president would take too much time away from her family, and how could she possibly balance all of that, especially with a pregnant 17-year old daughter, and a special needs infant? 

Why is that any of our business?  Do we question other working parents, who have more than two kids, special needs, or other challenges, or do we assume they will figure it out?  Todd Palin is going to be the stay-at-home parent.  Why do we insist on the parent at home in this case has to be Sarah?  Where has all the talk about fathers being at home gone?  Does this mean that stay-at-home fathers aren’t quite as good as stay-at-home mothers?  Isn’t this what women and feminists have been fighting for all these years for?  Now that we see this on a national stage, suddenly women with babies and families, shouldn’t be at high profile jobs.  They shouldn’t be taking on career aspirations. 

The double standard here is amazing.  Barack Obama has been campaigning now for about 18-months, and I have not heard one word, about how he will balance his family life, nor has he been judged on what kind of father he is. 

During the last year and a half, how much time has Obama spent with his girls?  Unlike the Palins, Obama’s wife, Michelle, has not announced that she would be a stay-at-home parent, should Obama become president.  That is their private decision to make, and we assume they will figure it out.  Why aren’t we granting this courtesy to Palin and her family? 

If being vice president takes so much time away from family, (even though the father would be at home) wouldn’t being president take even more time away from Obama’s family (and we don’t even know if there will be a stay-at-home parent?)  Yet we don’t hear the same “concerns” for Obama’s family being discussed.  Don’t two young girls need their father around during their formative years?   Why are we so quick to judge a strong woman as a mother, when we don’t judge a strong man as a father?  

It is really interesting for me all the issues that have been brought to light by Sarah Palin running for vice president.  It has made me question what “feminism” is all about to begin with.  Is it only OK to advance your career when you have 2.1 kids, but not three or four, or seven? 

Is feminism about advancing women, and breaking through glass ceilings from the board rooms to the White House? Or is it only “politically correct” to break glass ceilings as long as your politics don’t fall on the wrong side of those ceilings?

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Ryan will be five in January, and up until Saturday night, we have been such perfect parents <joke>, had the luck of never having to take him to the emergency room. 

It had just finished raining on Saturday night, at 7:30.  Ryan was begging to go outside in the backyard and play.  We told him sure, and off he went-running. A second later we heard him screaming, like we have never heard him scream before.

Joe went outside to see what was wrong, and when I heard him say “Where did all this blood come from?” I ran outside too.  Joe was carrying Ryan in, and I was horrified to see a lot of blood running down Ryan’s mouth.  I couldn’t even see his mouth-it was that bloody.  I had no idea what had happened, but saw his chin was bleeding and so was his knee. 

Poor Ryan was so hurt and upset.  Through his tears he kept saying “My blood, my blood.”  I think it freaked him out to see so much blood, and when I glanced out the kitchen window, I saw our entire walkway in the backyard was covered in it. He obviously fell, and either bit his lip as he fell, resulting in the cut, or the impact when he fell made him bite down on his lip.  

As we cleaned up his mouth, we saw that his lip was split, just behind his lip, and it was deep.  Joe thought he needed stitches, so we left for the ER.

To make a really long story short, the ER was backed up for hours.  A nurse graciously came out and told me we would be sitting there for hours. She looked at Ryan’s lip and said he did need to be seen by a doctor.  Thankfully my brother, Jeff, had been at home, and was able to look up the number to the Children’s Hospital Urgent Care Clinic in a town about half an hour away for us.  I called and they were open until midnight, and she said there was only about a fifteen minute wait.

Ryan in the meantime, had calmed down a bit, but he was still really in a lot of pain.  His mouth had stopped bleeding too.  He kept coughing though in the car, like he was gagging, and I was hoping he wasn’t going to be sick-probably from all the blood he had swallowed.  He didn’t want to drink anything, and he screamed if we so much put ice near his mouth.

By the time we had waited at the ER, and drove to the urgent care center, and finally was seen by a doctor, two and a half hours had passed.  The doctor said it was our call if we wanted Ryan to have stitches.  She said fortunately, since the wound was on the inside of his mouth, there would be no scaring, and she said mouth wounds heal very fast.  She also said all his teeth were fine.  We didn’t really know what to do- the wound looked so bad, so I asked her what she recommended.

She said if it was her son, she would skip the stitches.  She said it would require a numbing shot, and then the stitches.  Joe and I agreed with her. Ryan was finally calm, and acting better (I am sure the Motrin the nurse gave him was helping), and we didn’t want to put him through any more trauma and stress, especially if it wasn’t needed.  The doctor gave us some tips for cleaning the wound, and told us it should look better in a few days-not worse.

We left.  Joe and I were starving- we had fed the boys dinner, but we hadn’t eaten before all this happened.  There was a Wendy’s open, and Ryan asked for a Frosty, so we were happy he was feeling better. 

Cole was just amazing through all of this.  He was SO good and acted like such a big boy.  At one point he kept pointing to his mouth, and saying “Ouch,” and wanted me to kiss his mouth.  I think he was having sympathy pains for his brother.

We got both the boys a Frosty, and drove home.  Around 11, we finally got Ryan to bed, and he was so tired.  He fell right asleep. 

On Sunday, his knee was sore, but he was feeling a lot better and had no problems eating, even though his lip is really swollen and the wound is black and blue.  He went to his grandparents house with Joe, and had fun helping Dad and Grandpa cut down a tree, but he also took a long nap. 

I’m glad in this case, the injury looked worse than it was, and now we have experience in dealing with a mouth wound.  It never ceases to amaze me how resilient kids are, and how fast they can bounce back.  It is kind of amazing we haven’t had more of these episodes, but with two active boys, I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of the urgent care/ER yet.

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Since we weren’t sure if we would be living somewhere new this fall, I have put off enrolling Ryan in pre-school.  He went to an enrichment type school last year on a farm, and we have been thinking about sending him there again for the fall and winter.  However, since he will be starting kindergarten next fall (gulp), we have also been thinking about enrolling him in a more formal pre-school setting.

Not knowing what to do, I have taken to asking Ryan what he wants-just to hear his thoughts on the matter.  Every time I bring up the subject, he tells me he is not going back to school.  The first few times he said this, I brushed it off, but it is a little concerning to me that he is not excited or has any desire to go back to school. 

I brought up the subject again with him today:

Me: Are you ready to go back to school?

Ryan: I am never going back to pre-school ever again.  I am going to stay home and play all day.

Me: Why don’t you want to go to school?

Ryan: There are too many kids, it is boring, and I get straw in my shoes.

(Light bulb moment for me- at last I felt like I was getting to the root of the problem)

Me: What if we go to a new school where there aren’t as many kids, and you aren’t bored?

Ryan: Nope.  I’m not going back.

Me: Well, what are you going to do for a job when you get older if you don’t go to school?  You have to make money one day, and you can’t do that if you don’t go to school.

(Silence from Ryan.  I finally broke through to him- or so I thought.)

Ryan (after several moments of thinking): I can get a job at McDonald’s.

(Silence from me.  I have nothing left to say.)

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