The Cutest Little Broken Arm You Ever Did See.

It all happened on the fateful day of September 28th, at 4:00 pm. We were headed out to the bus stop to pick up the kids after school. Nate had just woken up so I thought that I would get out one of our camping chairs and we could sit in the garage and snuggle until the bus came. I went down the stairs into the garage with Nate following behind me. As I reached for the camping chair I heard a thump and turned around just in time to see him slide the rest of the way down the steps head and hands first. I rushed over and tried to comfort him but he was pretty sad. I knew that he had hit his head on the cement, so I was looking for a split on his head or signs of a concussion. He had a big goose egg but seemed okay. I hugged him in the chair and the girls came in from the bus. After about 10 minutes he started to settle down. Michael got off the bus a few minutes later and as he walked up the driveway Nate wanted to turn to see him. He reached his arm out toward Michael and started crying all over again and he was cradling his wrist. I knew then that we needed to take him into be seen.

Luckily enough our sweet friend (who adores Nate) was working in the ER. I dropped the big kids off at another sweet friends house (I can't say enough how grateful I am for kind friends.) and went straight to the ER. They had us checked in and X-rays done in less than 10 minutes. Ben was coming straight from work to meet us there. As he walked around the corner into the room the tears started again. Nate really loves his Daddy.

He got a doctor rubber ducky, popsicles and apple juice to help him cheer-up.

The x-rays showed a small fracture on the radius. They decided to splint it and helped us set up an appointment with an orthopedist (who is also a friend in our ward) for Monday.

Kendall was wonderful with Nate.

On Monday I took him into the orthopedic surgeon, Mark confirmed it was a small buckle fracture on his radius. He said that it would heal quickly, but it needed to be cast in order to protect it while it healed.

If you look really-really closely you can see the fracture. It is a small bump on the inner part of the radius.

Even though it was just the wrist they put the cast up over his elbow. They said that with little guys if they don't put it all the way up over their elbow they can find a way to get it off. He was a great sport. He hated that they had to lay him down on the table to cast it. I think it made him nervous. I just put my face right by his and we looked at pictures of the fam on my phone.

Pretty darn cute!

Then on Sunday were were having some friends over for dinner after General Conference. They were all playing up in the Tippy Top. And Nate actually did split his head open. One of the other kids came running down saying that Nate was bleeding and that we probably needed a band-aid or maybe two or three. By the time I got up to him; he had blood all over his face, down into his eye, and all over his neck and clothes. It was hard to assess the situation until we got it cleaned up a little. Luckily there were once again friend there to help hold pressure on his head. We decided that it was not worth the stress of taking him in for stitches, so we just butterflied it shut. It actually healed remarkably well. There is only a little scar left to help us all remember.

An hour after the head splitting.

I took this picture a few days after the split head. No wonder he has a broken arm. I have a suspicion that it won't be his last.

"Danger, danger, danger."

Two weeks later we took him into the ortho again to get the cast off. I was glad that he only had to have it for two weeks. It is hard to keep a toddler's hands clean. The cast was starting to get pretty gross and stinky. Also, he loves taking baths and it was like torture to let the other kids bathe without him. He knew was missing out.

Ready to get the cast off!

He did great with the very loud machine that cut it off. But he wasn't too sure what do do with his arm once it was cast-less.

"Hello my old friend."

After the cast came off they gave us a brace for him to wear for two more weeks. It helped some, but he really didn't like wearing it. Also, it was just put on with two Velcro straps and was very easy for Nate to remove. We did the best we could, but he didn't wear it all of the time.