Hear Me Rohrer: Thankful For the Big Little Things

Libby with her drawing about wiggling her loose front tooth

Thursday was a trying day to be sure. It started out early at 2 AM with Sara fussing for her bottle and then again at 4 AM with Annie waking me up delivering kittens (by 7 AM she ended up with five super cute little babies who look very healthy). My friend Karrie had to fill in extra hours at work on short notice for someone who was sick and dropped Kenna off at our house at 7:30. Libby and I did schoolwork while Caleb, Kenna, and Sara played together in the basement. I was running around between lessons, cleaning the house, watching the little kids, and cleaning up after pets. Meanwhile, I had this crazy idea that it would be really nice to get caught up on laundry for once. I lost track of how many loads I washed. I really don't mind the actual washing and folding, but for some reason, I HATE putting it away. We usually have a few baskets of folded laundry sitting around, and it drives me crazy. This time, I was determined to get it all done in the same day.

Poor Caleb's nose :(

By the afternoon, the kids were getting cranky and a little stir crazy. Kenna left around 3 and Libby and Caleb wanted to go outside to enjoy a rare sunny day by playing in the driveway on their bikes. I decided to get a grapefruit out for lunch. They were doing just fine outside, but Sara was cranky. I left my partially prepared grapefruit on the counter while I took Sara's temperature. Of course our temporal scan thermometer wasn't working and needed to be cleaned. I carried Sara up with me to get the alcohol out of the upstairs bathroom and cleaned the thermometer. The next scan worked correctly, and sure enough, Sara had a low fever. Just then, there was a thud followed by a scream from outside. Caleb apparently cut a corner too sharp on his bike and wiped out, breaking his fall with his face and the backs of his wrists. He left a good part of his poor little nose, lip and forehead on the driveway. He came screaming to the door with Libby who was also screaming (she doesn't do blood AT ALL). I left Sara in the bathroom and raced downstairs to Caleb. He was inconsolable and Libby was even worse. His nose was scraped on the outside, but was bleeding from the inside as well. Sara of course wouldn't come downstairs and I had to leave Caleb crying with a cold, wet cloth on his bleeding nose while I went to see what Sara was getting into this time. Of course, she had just opened the door into the momma cats' room and was trying to pick up a kitten. Ahhhh!

Still smiling, though!

I dragged Sara downstairs and Caleb's nose had stopped bleeding, but then I noticed he had a golf ball sized lump swelling up on his forehead, too. Sara kept getting into things a hundred miles an hour while I was doctoring Caleb, and Libby was too shaken up to be any help watching Sara. I sent her and Sara to their room for Libby to watch Sara in a safe environment. Caleb was finally calming down, but I could hear Libby wailing LOUDLY upstairs (and her bedroom windows were open for the world to hear), "I don't want to be in my room! I want my brother to be OK. Why did Caleb have to get hurt? I wish my windows were not open! I CAAAAAAN'T watch Saraaaaaaaaa!!!" Oh my! The drama from that child is pretty incredible sometimes. I brought the girls back downstairs, gave Caleb and Sara both some Ibuprofen, put Sara down for a nap, and got Caleb set up in my lap with a bag of frozen corn on his poor swelling forehead. Sara didn't take a nap and took her diaper off again instead. She wet her bed and her clothes, and then cried until Libby went up to get her for me. Then Sara went back to her tricks and wouldn't listen to her mommy who was stuck on the couch with her injured big brother.

And still really goofy!

And extra silly, too!

I finally had to call Nathan and ask him to come home a little early. He saved the day! He showed up with McDonalds and took over the Sara-patrol. We gave Caleb his Happy Meal, and put a cool Spongebob bandaid across his nose. He was kind of proud of his injury, but didn't want to look at himself in the mirror. Thank goodness he didn't show any sign of a concussion and we were able to skip the visit to the ER. We were so thankful that he was OK. He fell fast asleep on the couch and we carried him and Sara up to bed (finally!). Then Nathan and Libby and I went to work cleaning the house, doing dishes, and folding and putting away yet more laundry - all the stuff that I had planned to do earlier that afternoon. Libby cornered me and begged for me to take her out to eat at a "fancy" restaurant - AppleBee's! She wanted to spend some time with just the two of us, and I thought it was a great idea. Nathan and I talked about it while I ate my dehydrated grapefruit from earlier and decided that I would take Libby out to lunch after work on Saturday. We finally got the house clean and ALL THE LAUNDRY DONE and went to bed around midnight.

Sara LOVES Izzy and he thinks she is quite tasty, too

Friday was a long day at work for both Nathan and I. Friday night, I brought home Karrie's Pug dog named Boo and a little Maltese named Izzy. They are spending the weekend with us while Karrie is out of town. As Karrie had warned us, neither dog would be quiet in a crate. After listening to barking and yipping for about 30 minutes, we gave in and let them sleep with us. Yes, in our bed. Nathan had a few choice comments about them, which made me giggle and then they got all excited and ran all over us in the bed. There's nothing like watching someone else's pets to make you thankful for your own well-behaved ones. Pepsi would NEVER! :)

Cute little Izzy

Boo with Sara climbing up behind her

This morning I got up, got ready for work, cleaned dog pee out of the carpet from one of our furry guests, took care of the cats and kittens, said goodbye to my family and drove to work. As soon as work was over, I rushed home to pick up Libby and take her out to our "fancy" lunch at AppleBee's. We were both really looking forward to our little date together.

Pepsi the mechanic says, "Yup. It's leaking."

As I backed out of the driveway, the brakes felt funny and the pedal went all the way to the floor. Hmmmm. Probably not a good thing. So, Libby and I went v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w.l.y. around the block and carefully pulled back into our driveway. Sure enough, there was a large puddle and then a nice trail of brake fluid in the driveway. The tow truck just came to take the car to the mechanic and Nathan and the big kids have gone to take care of paperwork at the mechanic as well. After talking to my Dad, we decided that the brake line must have cracked or been damaged a few weeks ago when Nathan accidentally hit a man-eating pothole on the highway and blew out a front tire while driving to work. I love winter in Ohio - NOT!

The trail of fluid in the driveway

Anyway, we started thinking about how things could have turned out this week. Caleb could have suffered a concussion or worse and turned out like his Aunty Libby. Ha ha! Seriously, I am SO thankful that he is OK. He has some very ugly scabs, but he's going be just fine. And I am SO thankful that the brakes went out while I was in the driveway and not on the highway on my way home from work. And I'm even more thankful it didn't happen with Libby in the car on the way to our fancy lunch (rescheduled for dinner tonight). I think our guardian angels have probably requested a vacation after all the work they've had to do at our house this week!