How Jack became the first Owen/Landry to break a bone

You know the inner battle between not wanting to be overprotective and having day-mares about what might happen to your child at any given moment?  I do!  A few weeks back at the park, I was having the thought "I've got to let Cora roam more freely; I've got to trust that I don't need to follow her every second."  Five seconds later, when I wasn't following her, she fell six feet off a play structure.  Naturally.

No broken bones though.  In fact neither I, Jacob, nor any of our siblings has ever broken a bone that we can recall.

Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend and Jack is having a BLAST on the water slide at his great aunt's house in Jennings, LA.  This was the same 8-foot slide that last year had me glued to its side, cringing every time he climbed it as my overactive imagination saw him toppling backwards off the top.  Well, this year he went up it at least thirty times without incident.  I gave him space to be a four year old boy and while Jacob and I were sitting at the opposite side of the pool with Cora, we saw his little head pop up over the top...and then plummet downward.

All fun earlier in the day

To Jacob's credit, he ran just as fast I did around the pool.  Jack was in a heap on the concrete, wailing.  We hadn't seen how he'd landed, so we gingerly picked him up.  He was clutching his arm, which had a little blood on the wrist, saying it hurt.  We sat with him on a porch swing for a while but he wasn't calming down.  Jack's not one to cry for long, but we thought he might just be overtired after a full day of playing in the pool.  So we took him inside and he fell asleep on the couch.  (With me hovering beside him; I have heard too many stories about concussions.) 

We woke him after a little while and when he stood up, he started sobbing again and clutching his arm, so we felt like we had our answer at that point.  We took him to the local ER and an x-ray showed two buckle fractures in his left arm, near the wrist.  He was sent home with a splint and instructions to follow up with an orthopedist on Monday. 

Jacob and I were so proud of Jack!  We've already seen he's a model patient.  He's a curious guy and likes attention, so the comings and goings of a hospital interest him.  Both this visit and at his recent ear surgery, he was the one answering all the questions.  And so matter of factly too.  He has been sticking to his "4 and one quarter" answer when asked his age, which always gets a smile.  When he was asked if he needed a wheel chair to go to the X-ray area, he looked at the nurse oddly and shook his head, probably thinking "It's my arm that's hurt, not my legs!"

He didn't need too much pain medicine between Saturday and Monday and was able to get his cast on Monday, Memorial Day, at Children's Hospital.  We are so lucky to have this awesome all-needs facility a five minute drive from our house.  (He's been there a few times at this point.)  Jack loves to check to see if the helicopter is on the roof whenever we are there.

There was no question on the color of the cast.  Red. 

Now Jack had not seemed down by the broken arm, but I was really sad for the guy!  Would this mean the end of his 2014 t-ball career?  A summer of no swimming?  What about the four day road trip with Grammy and Big Papa where we were planning to live it up in the hotel pools each night?  But Jack's break was "the best possible kind" according to the doctor and he'll get his cast off in 3 weeks, one day before our summer vacation and road trip. 

That's a happy ending to this story.  And in case you're wondering, I'm sure I'll be stationed back by the water slide next year.

Cora Update

23 months!

I'd love to say goodbye to diapers!

Potty Training Update: This month has shown us that long potty training experiences will be our norm.  Most days this month, she's peed one time a day in the potty; sometimes with little need for prodding; other times after extensive reading/encouraging/prompting.  On the other hand, she's had two awesome days in the last week:

• Last Saturday, she peed at home and on three public toilets, staying dry all day as we drove to the Northshore, went on an 8 mile bike ride and out to lunch.  We didn't even rush to potties.  She was going 90+ minutes between potty opportunities. It wasn't until 3:30 in the afternoon when she was over it and went back to diapers for the rest of the day.  (When Cora is done, she is done.  We were 30 minutes late to a party because I tried to keep up the momentum, but NO.)
• Yesterday (also a Saturday), she stayed dry the entire day except for one oops!

At the start of the month, we were having so much trouble I thought it had all been a fluke, but then she would do something like the following to remind me that she can absolutely own this pottying thing: one morning she hadn't been interested in peeing, but she saw me putting on makeup and wanted to play with my make-up brushes.  So I said, "makeup is for big girls that wear undies."  She left the room, went to her potty, peed on it and came back and told me she'd gone! 

So the end of the month consensus? We'll keep up the efforts.

Sleep Training Update: We are one week+ into a sleeping through the night stretch!  That meant it took us about three weeks of 1-2 wakings a night where we rocked and rationalized.  She is no longer nursing in the night.  We feel victorious!

Cora Speak Update:

• Her first full sentence was this month: "I wanna drink Mama wawa" (meaning she wanted to drink out of my cup.)  She is a water-aholic.  She always wants her sippy cup. Other recent sentences: "I wanna help Mama." and "I dropped my bop."  She's been saying words and short phrases (i.e. "Cora cup") for so long that it's weird to hear her converse!
• She continues to refuse to attempt her name.  When you ask her name she says "bebe".  When we say "Is your name Cora?" or "No, your name is Cora," she goes "No!  Bebe!"  She thinks it's great fun.
• First words out of her mouth in the morning are a roll call: "Where Dada?"  awaits response  "Where Jack-Jack?"  Then she smiles, "Where mama?...There!"  "Where bebe?"....and then points to herself.  She frequently checks in on everyone's status throughout the day too.  "Dada work?"  "Where Jack-Jack?"
• She likes to assign ownership to people, i.e "my seat," "my book," etc. and "mama wawa, Jack Jack wawa, dada wawa."
• "MINE!" is her favorite word

Cora Funnies

• Anytime Jacob brings hot sauce to the table, she flips out and insists on having some on her plate.  Also, if she sees us adding salt, she wants some too.
• Potty training is pretty cute as we still all get very excited when she pees, Cora included.  She loves "Undies!!" and dumping her own pee into the potty.
• She still rocks the facial expressions!

Cora Difficulties

• She can be grumpy and emotional a lot!  Especially after nap.  She tends to only want me and not just me nearby, but "Mama hold!" Right now, I can hear her screaming and crying outside (where Jacob and Jack are playing) and I'm pretty confident it's not for a good reason.
• She is SENSITIVE!  Jack can just look at her wrong and she gets mad/offended/upset.  He definitely does things to get a reaction out of her, but other times, he's just trying to play with her and she's all "NO! Jack Jack - no Jack Jack!"

These two things we could live without, but Miss CB we could not live without!  I'm very excited to wish her a happy 2nd birthday in a month!

Becoming a big, independent, strong little lady!