Crash Landing

Here is a picture of Sadie a week ago Monday. She was showing off her new shirt for Hannah, since Hannah gave it to her. All was well....but Wednesday evening she looked like this....

She fell off of the ladder that goes up into the treehouse. Morgan was right there, but a little girl falls faster than a Daddy can move. And a Daddy can move fast. :) She broke her radius and cracked her ulna back from the wrist a few inches. Daddy was so calm that Sadie never got worked up, and she really didn't complain of pain at all, though her wrist was obviously disformed. In fact, Ivey's description to Nan Hatty was that "Sadie's arm looks like a fat hose with a kink in it". That was pretty accurate. :) I have to say, my nerves didn't handle it too well. I just followed Morgan's lead. He was all of our knight in shining armor that night. He gently cleaned the dirt off of her face while inspecting her wrist. He talked to her soothingly as he held her as close to him as he could. He quietly instructed the other kids to get shoes on and get in the car, and went through a checklist of things I needed to remember. It would take too long to describe it all, but it was a night where I stood again in amazement and thankfulness for Morgan. I mean, how can you not fall in love all over again with a man as you watch him gently help a 3 year old hold her arm just right and make her giggle while she's getting x-rays? Or watch him explain to her what to expect in the ER so that she took it all calmly. When I got back to the ER after dropping the other kids off at Hunter and Hatty's, I was met with Sadie telling me very matter of factly "They are going to take a picture of my wrist so I can see the bones". She never got upset the whole night. She took it in stride and was thrilled with the stickers the x-ray tech gave her. These pictures with Pink Panther were taken that night when we got home. This is about 11:00 p.m. and you can see that she was just hamming it up for the camera, trying to look pitiful, but giving over to giggles.

The other two kids have really tended to Sadie. This was the next morning. Shane got her his best t-shirt to wear all day and read her books. The night she broke it, he disappeared while Morgan was cleaning her up. He reappeared with her favorite blanket, his favorite stuffed animal for her, her favorite book, and a pillow to rest her wrist on. Morgan and I were very touched by his thoughtfulness. And the pillow was the perfect thing - we wouldn't have thought of it!
Back to winter activities instead of being out all day running wild! Lots of puzzles...
and building, and books on tape!
This is less than 24 hours after it happened and she was singing "Three Blind Mice" at the top of her lungs. She was immediately an expert at doing everything one handed.
Getting out of some work...lots of perks to being among the injured. :)
Showing off her splint for everyone. The kids still go out and ride bikes, etc. She'll follow them, assuring me over her shoulder that "I'm just going to sit and watch them." Morgan and I are keeping close to them so there is supervision and she doesn't get any wild ideas. :) We got some Play-doh for them to play with out on the porch. That keeps Sadie pretty still for a good long time. That's been the only hard thing! She has tried getting up on little stilts, asked me if it is ok to fall off of the ledge (backwards, onto her bottom on the carpet) instead of jump off of it (NO!) :)

I thought I was going to have to help her eat "corn on the cobbler" as she calls it. But she took off and did fine!

Five days after she broke it, we went to get a cast put on. There were several colors, but she chose blue. Anyone surprised? :) Later she said "I'm SO glad I picked blue. I LOVE it!" :) She packs a marker around and has people sign it. You can see that Ivey has been tending to her. The first day she held her hand and walked with her around the house.
I forgot to say that the doctor showed us the x-rays and said it is a beautiful break, meaning it is perfectly lined up and will heal perfectly if we can keep her from falling on it again. Sadie still is not having any pain, which puzzles me, but I'm glad for it. She hurt some the first day. She came to me with an irritated look on her face and said "OW!" I asked her if her arm was hurting. She said "YES!And for no reason!" :)

So, it's been an ordeal, but I think Morgan was right when he told someone the other day that it has been harder on the parents than on Sadie. She seems quite unbothered by the whole thing and happily tells anyone who will listen what she did. She told someone the other day that she "fell 50 feet out of a treehouse". It did get the reaction she hoped for, but wasn't exactly accurate! :)

4 weeks may be enough, worst case scenario will be 6. So, there's the news from our house!