Eric's Broken Arm

One week after his 7th birthday, Eric had an unfortunate incident involving one of his balloons: he got his feet tangled in its ribbons, then tripped and fell--in our living room on two layers of carpet.

This hardly seems noteworthy, but the events that followed turned out to be pretty memorable. 

Eric cried hard after the fall, and he seemed a little pale. We tried to distract him with some lunch (which he refused) and some TV (which he accepted). After about an hour, Eric had calmed down quite a bit. We'd talked about taking him to the hospital in case he'd twisted his arm, but we decided it was probably just bruised, especially since he had only fallen from standing and landed on carpet.

I left Eric with Jason and went grocery shopping with Alaina. Not long afterwards, Jason called me, and I could hear Eric crying in the background. Eric is usually a brave guy--he hardly cries when he gets hurt and hates having to miss out on anything, even to recover from an injury. Hearing him cry like that over something that had happened over two hours earlier, I decided to take him to Emergency.

Soon an x-ray showed that Eric had fractured his elbow. The doctor recommended a sling, which he said Eric would need to wear for "a month or two."

The sling helped a bit, but we were a little worried about keeping Eric in it for several weeks--his arm was flopping around and really sore, especially after sleeping. 

The next day, though, we got a call from the hospital for Eric to go in to the cast clinic. This appointment resulted in a splint/half-cast, tightly secured by elastic bandages. Eric was not happy with this new development, although I could see that it would keep his arm a lot more stable. Still, the tight wrapping really bothered him, and I wasn't sure how we were going to keep it hygienic over the recommended three weeks of wear.

Fortunately, when I talked to our family doctor the next day, he said we could take off the bandages and rewrap them (something Janae happens to be an expert at doing!). So, now Eric's arm is stable, able to go in the bath, and wrapped just right in clean bandages every day.

He has quickly learned to do everything with one arm--or at least one elbow (he's still using his right arm as much as possible, which is quite a bit). After the first day he was getting dressed, putting on shoes, buckling his seatbelt, and carrying his backpack without any help. 

So, that's what Eric's second week of being 7 was like! I wonder what the rest of the year will bring....

Eric's Lucky 7

Here are seven pictures from Eric's seventh birthday, which was yesterday!

Jason's mom came to bring our birthday boy a gift in the morning, even though we could only visit outside in the yard.

The gift turned out to be a remote-control race track that lights up and plays music.

Eric has had fun putting the track together in different ways--today he's been making it into armor, belts, hats, a necklace ... probably not intended by the manufacturer, but he's a pretty creative guy. Here he is dancing to the (obnoxious) music:

Our church's Primary did a drive-by birthday celebration in the afternoon, similar to the one Alaina had in September. This time everyone drove by my parents' house, since we live on such a busy street, but Eric had a great time seeing people waving and honking from their cars. He really enjoyed opening all the cards and presents, too! His cousin Becca came over later with some cupcakes, which also made him feel very special.

Eric helped me decorate his cake, made in the shape of a fish. For anyone who doesn't know, Eric LOVES fish--to see/read about/keep as pets, NOT to eat (unless they're actually a cake!).

He blew out all but one of his candles on the first try :) 

After the cake, Eric broke out some glow swords he'd got in one of his birthday cards and--since there were four--had a battle in the dark with Ben, Janae and Alaina.

As always, Eric made sure the day was full of life and fun. I am so grateful for him--my baby, who is now SEVEN!

Lots of New as We Ended 2020

I know I wrote recently about Halloween not being quite the same in 2020, along with a lot of other holidays and events that were altered in the past 10 months due to Covid-19. However, the differences this Christmas and New Year's went beyond anything we could have imagined.

Like everyone else, we missed the concerts and school events that usually make the holiday season special. We had Zoom concerts for piano 

                                 

and cello, 

                                                  

and we watched video presentations from the schools, which were kind of nice but not quite the same.

Like most others, we missed being with family on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and--aside from Covid restrictions--this year was especially difficult without Grandpa. We never thought a cemetery would be part of our Christmas Eve celebration, but this year we took part in the Finnish tradition of taking a candle to my dad's grave. 

                                              

The snow was a nice touch, but we were sad. 

Afterwards, we visited my mom, wearing masks and sitting across the room. It wasn't the same at all, but we were happy we could at least be together in that way. 

Not to break completely with tradition, we looked at a few Christmas lights on the way home and the kids opened their presents from each other. 

                                     

Then we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol and left cookies and milk for Santa (Eric once again left out nine carrots for the reindeer, too!).

We were also moving during the last two weeks of December, which meant packing up most of our belongings before Christmas. I tried to keep our living room intact so we could enjoy our beautiful tree, and I resisted packing up the kitchen so we could make our turkey dinner on the 25th, but the house was becoming less and less homey with every passing day. 

I guess I haven't mentioned yet that we signed a contract on Dec. 12, doubling up on half a month's rent so we could ensure we had a place to live before our landlords moved into our driveway (something they thought would work until we found a new home). I'll admit that I was pretty upset about this move--the timing was terrible, with Christmas coming and the rental market so dismal. Any house we looked at was smaller, grungier and much more expensive than where we were living, and I felt it was too much to ask me to find a new home under these conditions, just months after losing my dad. I think I cried every day during December. 

The house we accepted was one of our few options, but something about it made both Jason and me come back to it a week after we had originally ruled it out. It was on a busy street, had discolored carpets and was smaller than our little house on Huggins Avenue (with a kitchen half the size of our already small one), but it had a big backyard and was a little closer to our middle school/high school. The landlords seemed nice and had little children who were running around when we went to see the house. They were looking for a family and liked the idea of a landscaper moving in. When we called them back a week after our viewing, they were excited to hear from us and willing to rent the house to us right away (this, after not getting called back and having people wanting to scrutinize our finances before giving a viewing). 

So, we signed a year-long contract and started packing and cleaning. 

We took Christmas Day off to enjoy opening presents and cooking a turkey--which turned out very nicely.  

But the next day, we started taking down all the decorations. I couldn't bear to dismantle the tree completely, so we left it up without any lights or ornaments until the 29th when we moved our largest items (couches, mattresses and piano).

We cleaned the house on the 30th and turned in our keys New Year's Eve.

We had bought some carpets to cover the discolored areas at the new house, and the living room started to look better with our furniture in it. 

I started calling the house "The Emerald City" because it has a lot of green: carpets, blinds, kitchen and bathroom tiles, curtains.  

The furnace only works sporadically and we'll never be able to buy anything again with how much more we're paying for rent, but we're settling in and feeling more comfortable. 

I guess that's the most we could ask for after so much change!