My little walking accident

Tommy is the most accident prone child I have ever encountered. I know every kid runs into (literally) their fair share of bumps and bruises, but my goodness! This kid has a knack for it. He's so good at it that I would almost consider it a talent. Unfortunately, the injured area is almost always his head.

So far, he's fallen and hit his mouth on a plastic storage tub and that chipped a tooth (which resulted in him needing it pulled). He's pulled a dining room table over and it hit and bust open his forehead (which you can read about in one of my previous blog posts). And now.........we have three more to add that have happened in the last two weeks.

A few weeks ago, my mom and cousin took Tommy to Chuck E Cheese. He was running and one of his flip flops got tucked under his foot somehow and he tripped and smacked his head right on the edge of a ski ball machine. My cousin called me and said, "Tommy hit his head and we're taking him to the ER." And I was all, "Haha, okaaaayyy!" She said, "Brady! I'm not joking! I wouldn't joke about something like that. Meet us there!" I could hear Tommy screaming in the back ground, so I knew she was serious. My heart was breaking not to be with him because he kept yelling, "Moooooommmmmy!! I want moooommmmmyyyyyy!" So sad :(

Nick, Tessa and I scrambled around and got in the car and made it to the Andover ER before they did.

I hate that we've had to go there so many times, but I am SO glad that hospital is there. I wouldn't go there for anything life threatening (just because they're a smaller hospital, not because of lack of confidence in the doctors!), but they are excellent for things like this. My mom and cousin showed up and we were put in a room in less than 5 minutes. We were seen in less than 10. And the ER doctor was Tommy's PCP, so he felt comfortable with him.

The doctor said to just monitor him for concussion symptoms and to use ice and ibuprofen. I hate paying $100 copay to hear that, but sure am glad for the peace of mind it brings. His head was CRAZY huge. Like.......crazy. He looked like an alien.Or a character off Star-Wars. Not so bad from the front.......

 GINORMOUS from the side!!

 It was seriously the weirdest thing ever. It was squishy and filled with blood, but SO. HUGE. I felt so bad for him. It hurt so much he couldn't hardly stand an ice pack, so we did lots of cold washrags. The doctor said he needed to stay upright for a few hours to help the blood drain a little, so he got ibuprofen, snuggles and TV time. It seemed to help his spirit, but not his bump. The doctor had warned us when it did start draining, his eyes would turn black. He didn't lie :)

This was just the next day.......not too bad yet.

 

This was 3-4 days later. Definitely started turning black. And his little nose was so swollen, you couldn't hardly see the bridge of it!

  

It got worse, but I somehow missed taking pictures of it. It didn't help that less than a week after he did this (and right when his bump was starting to go away), he was jumping off a couch cushion (that was on the floor that his dad had already told him to put up and stop jumping off of) and he fell and hit his forehead right on our wood floors in the exact same spot as his previous injury.

Sigh.

What am I going to do with this boy? Now, his bump is hard as a rock (three weeks later). It's mildly smaller, but the doctor said it could take 6-12 months for it to go completely away. Great. At least it doesn't seem to be hurting him as much. 

Then last weekend, he was playing outside and backed right into Nick's tail gate. We got out the ice pack again. 

 

And he got lots of snuggles again. 

He truly is a walking disaster! I hope we can make it at LEAST a month without another injury! PLEASE, TOMMY!! My wallet and my panic mode need a break!

Tessa at 3 years old

Tessa Grace, at 3 years old you are:

*30 lbs

*36 1/2 inches

*wearing 2t shorts (and some 3t) and 3t shirts

*in a size 8 1/2-9 shoe

*hilarious. Seriously, you say the funniest things! And not just kid-funny, but truly clever and witty things! You make me laugh every day!

*still a little sassy. You have definitely backed off on the attitude (praise God!), but still have a few moments every now and then that I have to get onto you for back talking or being snotty.

*SO much better at minding. I can tell you to do something and 9 times out of 10, you do it. This is a drastic improvement in the past few months!

*such a helpful little girl. You LOVE trying to carry things for me or get things when I need them. It's so funny because I'll have my purse on my shoulder and you'll say, "I'll carry that for you mom!" You're so persistent that I eventually give it to you and even though it's super heavy, you still carry it! You're constantly saying, "I'll get that for you mom!" or "Here, I'll do it!" Love it.

*saying all your ABCs, counting to 10 or higher, know all your colors and most of your shapes.

*have a bit of a weird lisp. When you say the letter 'j' it sounds like the 'sh' sound. When you say Aunt JJ, it sounds like Aunt Shay Shay. I'm trying to work with you on it and when you really focus, you do it right, but you get really frustrated and don't want to talk about it!

*so caring. Whenever I'm upset or someone else is upset, you'll pat my back and say, "It's okay, mom. You okay." You give the best hugs and the sweetest kisses and really seem to be in tune to when people need cheering up.

*super into coloring and art projects. You looooove to color. Or cut things. Or paint. Pretty much any art.

*very dramatic. It's hilarious because 90% of the time, you're so chill and go-with-the-flow. But when you're upset, you are UPSET. You'll hang your head and flounce around and drop down to your knees and cry. It usually only lasts a minute or so and then you see you aren't getting the attention you were looking for so you hop up and smile and you're ready to go!

*becoming a daddy's girl. You were pretty attached to mama for the first few years of life, but lately you've been choosing to go with dad or do things outside with him. He loves it just as much as you do!

Her birthday  was so much fun!

This was her last night as a TWO YEAR OLD!!

The next morning, we all woke up and just hung out for a bit. Tessa and I took our time getting ready and then headed out for a girls morning!

We went and got donuts from Quik Trip (her fave!). She could pick anything she wanted to drink and she chose this juice........interesting.

 

I thought for sure she'd pick a juice with a princess head, but nope. We went with a darth vader, star wars creepy.....thing. 

Then we went and got her fingernails done. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. She's had her nails done before, so that part wasn't new to her.....

.....But the way she was walking through the store afterwards.....you could just TELL she felt like a million bucks! She had a sassy little walk and kept holding her hands out to the side so she wouldn't smear her polish. SO cute.

We did a little shopping at Wal-mart and tried on a few things (the only thing she ended up picking out was Hello Kitty band-aids and that made her day).

We got some ice cream on the way home and then picked up the boys. We all went to see the Minions movie together! It was cute and Tommy LOVED it. Tessa........she was a little more distracted and didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it. But that's okay. The experience was fun and she got to eat popcorn and snuggle with mom and dad.

After the movie, we went home and took naps. We had dinner and watched Despicable Me 2 (the kids had never seen it). It was SO cute! They loved it!

She opened presents all throughout the day. She would open one and then decide to wait to open the rest, so we pretty much opened one present every hour.  She got: a bike helmet, a huge Frozen frisbee, a Frozen shirt and skirt to go with it, 3 pairs of shoes, perfume (or beefume as she likes to call it), Despicable Me 2, a "I'm the birthday girl" shirt and a Frozen book bag on wheels! I was SO excited for her to open the book bag because she'd been asking for one forever. She'd been saving the "big" present for last and I couldn't wait to watch her open it. Then Nick and I started talking about something and when I turned around, she had already opened it, sat it on the ground and walked away. Awesome. Not only did I miss her opening it, but she was not excited in the least! But, that's my Tessa. She's not overly excited about anything except staying up late and chewing gum. True story.

She blew out a candle right before bed and then she feel asleep as a three year old, just like that. I'm so thankful every day for my sweet girl!