Saturday morning, we hooked a brand-new baby bike seat up to Mike's bike and took Avalyn out for her first bike ride. We rode to the big park a few blocks away for a play-date with our friend and his two kids. Avalyn played on the slide, the swing, the spinny-things and then took off on a jog around the park's perimeter path.
While running, she suddenly turned left and BAM! She was hit in the left side by a ten-ish year old girl on a bicycle. Avalyn tried to catch herself with her right leg, but ultimately fell back onto her bottom, screaming and crying. Mike and I rushed over to her as the girl who struck her apologized profusely and then burst into tears.
We comforted both children, until the girl's father arrived and the other girl was calmed. Avie continued to cry a little bit so we walked back to our friends to cheer her up. Mike set her down to run and play and after one step onto her left leg, Avie collapsed in the grass with a sudden, hysterical fit of tears.
My Mom-crazy ignited.
I immediately had her up in my arms with a "big problem" diagnosed and telling Mike that we urgently needed to get her some ice.
I think my eyes were scaring him... I thought of nothing other than getting her home to her boo-boo bunny. So we loaded up the bikes and made the suddenly, excruciatingly long ride back home.
Once at the house, she was still refusing to put pressure on her foot and cried when she tried. So... to the Children's ER we went.
4 hours, 2 dead cell phones and about 20 x-rays later... she was splinted with instructions to take her in to the orthopedic doctor for follow up in 4 days. He didn't see anything on the x-rays but said that was common with toddlers. Occult fractures often don't show up on x-rays right away.
The next 3 days were miserable. Not only could she not stand or walk, but she couldn't sleep in her "comfy" position of knees tucked up under her belly. On top of that, she is still cutting her 2 year molars... and her eczema is at it's worst. Every meal is suddenly a battle of "wills"... as in, will she eat what I've put in front of her or will she cry and beg for me to hold her instead?
Oh, and one of those days it rained so hard that I spent hours putting bowls under sudden ceiling leaks and mopping up wet carpets.
So today was day 4.
And my baby has a hot pink cast from her upper thigh down to her toes... for the next 3 weeks.
Oh, how I long for the days that I had to chase her down so I could jam
her shoes on.