Fuller just went down for the night. I hope. We had a bit of a rough day, but we will survive. There is always 2006, right around the corner.

Fuller slept in until 8ish. And then we were faced with the challenge of getting him to eat. He is on a soft food diet for the next few days. But I guess his mouth was just so sore that he was wary of having anything other than his hand or blanket tag in his mouth. The challenge of getting him to drink anything was a bit daunting. The hard spout of the sippy made him cry, so I went into the attic and found his soft spout sippies. Even that made him cry. Damon got him to eat applesauce and the Gerber toddler cereal mixed with milk. We tried eggs but he fussed at those as well.

When we weren’t trying to nourish him, he was still uncharacteristically fussy. He played, but whined. He cuddled a lot and watched Sesame Street and some of Clifford. We played Legos, but he was anxious. I could tell he wanted to sleep, but his paci irritated his mouth as well. He cried as if he wasn’t going to sleep without the paci, which is kind of unusual, but he was hurting. Finally I dug out a smaller paci, one for infants, and he was pacified and napped until 1.

While he napped I went to the store for sherbert, dog food, paper towels and a toddler cup with straw.

Last night, the nurse practictioner asked if Fuller could use a straw, if the sippy cup made him uncomfortable. I told the her no, but this afternoon I had visions of Fuller being dehydrated, so I thought we should at least try the straw. If it didn’t work then we would have a straw cup for later on. But you know what? As soon as I offered Fuller the cup with straw, he immediately knew what to do. My visions of a dehydrated Fuller vanished and he was a much happier child.

I took a nice afternoon nap while Damon indulged his highness with what ever it took to make him happy. Fuller was allowed to play with his keyboard, watch TV, cuddle… anything to make him happy. Fuller finally took a late afternoon nap, waking at 7 pm to have dinner and play for a while. And now he is fussing again, but I think that has something to do with the fireworks our neighbors are using for their celebration.

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Mark it in the baby book- first trip to the ER, December 30, 2005.

To be up front about this- Fuller is fine. Probably a little sore, but fine. No phone calls, please. Unless you gave birth to me and then you can call me. Otherwise, let me sleep in.

My poor little baby. He was walking, while holding a DVD case, fell and the DVD case hit him in the mouth, causing one of his upper front teeth to get knocked up and back. The initial response was that silent cry where he has his mouth open but no sound for what seems like forever and then suddenly he was screaming at the top of his lungs. I knew he was hurt and I picked him up, but when the blood showed up I did a quick check to find out what was bleeding and it was pretty obvious it was that baby tooth. Upper front, left side.

Oh, and did I mention that this happened in Blockbuster?

After a consult with Damon, we called the doctor, left a message with the answering service who paged Mandy. Mandy called me back, notified me that the call was being recorded and proceeded to ask me questions.

No it wasn’t bleeding any longer.
Yes, the tooth was knocked back, kind of askew. No, it wasn’t hanging loose.
No, he wasn’t unconcious. Yes, his disposition seems fine. No, it seems that it hurts when he eats.

And then Mandy told me that protocol is that if the tooth is knocked out of place the child has to go to the doctor to assess if the tooth could fall out because the child could swallow, choke, or aspirate it.

So, at 9 pm we made our way to TC Thompson’s Emeregency room where Fuller was seen in triage immediately, sent to a room immediately, and given an orange popsicle immediately. He winced a few times when it went in his mouth, but I think the cold was helping the pain so he suffered through and ate almost the whole thing. When he got to the stick part he didn’t really know what to do, so I took it off the stick but then he didn’t want it any more.

The nurse practitioner gave orders for tylenol and someone came back and handed me the syringe to administer the medicine to Fuller myself. This step seemed a little odd to me, because then several people got to see me wrestle my son to get a syringe in his mouth and force him to take the medicine. Fortunately Fuller doesn’t mind Tylenol, so once the syringe was in his mouth he sucked the goo down like a champ. I still had to pin his arms down, but he got much praise from the staff for being a good boy.

We were in and out of there in less than an hour. The diagnosis is that the tooth was pushed up and back, firmly keeping it in his mouth and that it isn’t in danger of harming his permanent teeth.

I don’t remember my first visit to the ER as a child, but I would say that for Fuller his first visit (and maybe his last?) ["Ha Ha. No chance of that." - DWord] was an overall good experience. Not too much blood, no stitches, and the only crying while we were there occurred as we were leaving as I wouldn’t let him have the second popsicle.

He’s such a brave little boy.

We have a 14 month old, so we watch a lot of public TV. As you may know, we in Chattanooga have TWO PBS stations, one for Tennessee, and one for Georgia. The next time you’re watching GPTV and the station identification commercial comes on, pay attention. The screen shows a graphic of all the major Georgia metro areas that GPTV serves while the voice-over explains that GPTV serves Atlanta… and the rest all of Georgia.

um…. ok

I mean, we kinda got the idea that GPTV serves the state of Georgia since it’s called “GEORGIA public television.”

Why not just come out and say what you’re really thinking:

“Thanks for watching GPTV, serving Atlanta, and just outside of Atlanta, which you may know as Georgia.”

Do you remember your parents ever saying to you, “You are grounded until this room is cleaned up!”

Well, I have decided that I am grounded from blogging until my house is cleaned up. We have old toys to sort and put away, new toys to store in the house somewhere, laundry to sort, wash, dry, fold, and put away, groceries to buy and put away, Christmas stuff to pack away for another year, and general house cleaning to accomplish. And I have work on top of all of that… you know, the paycheck factor.

So, while I may not publish anything here for a few days, know that we are ok and just taking a break from our hobby until our lives are somewhat sorted out. Or at least better organized.

Its my 2005 New Years resolution.

Yes, I know I said 2005. That is what I meant. I have five more days to get organized.

What am I doing? I’m grounded!

P.S. This does not mean that Damon is grounded. Just me.

Father & Son

Originally uploaded by sillyred.

We are back in Chattanooga, having arrived around 6:30. Now that we are back, it means Christmas is over and we can now talk about the gifts- the ones that we made.

Actually, I need to preface this by saying that the gifts we made were made by Damon and were his idea.

The main, big gift that Damon worked on this year was a coloring book for Albert & Linda. Damon got the idea last 4th of July and started working on it back then. My contribution to the project was to say to Damon, “Christmas is in 5 days. How is the coloring book?”

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At Eloise’s

Originally uploaded by sillyred.

Fuller’s second Christmas in almost over and his momma is tired.

Christmas with Damon’s side of the family means go here, go there, eat, watch the wather channel, eat, eat. (Of course, my side of the family does their share of the eat, eat, eat part.)

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tree

Originally uploaded by sillyred.

I caved.

Yesterday I had to go into the attic to find Fuller’s stocking and when I was up there I came across this fiber-optic joke of a Christmas tree. We purchased it from a yard sale a few years ago, with intentions to put it in a white elephant type gift exchange at some point. But yesterday, when I was in the attic, it suddenly stuck me as the perfect medium to express our family Christmas cheer. (More photos of our Christmas spirit if you click on the tree.)

We had a small family Christmas celebration, opening the presents that had arrived via USPS in the last few days. These were gifts from my side of the family and they were very generous with their giving. I received pretty gold hoop earrings, Damon received a Batman Begins DVD (sadly, it was sans DVD- a mistake by the packaging plant apparently), and Fuller received his own Snoop & Sniff puppy dog.

The dog was a big hit and Fuller immediately wanted to tear into the packaging. The only problem was that you couldn’t exactly tear into this packaging. The dog was so very carefully twist-tied into the box that it took us several minutes to free him so that Fuller could spend time rolling the puppy all around the house.

Also, our dogs received gifts too. They became the proud owners of two brand-new tennis balls. The reason I mention this is because Fuller has become very proficient at throwing the balls for Maple and Lively to chase. It appears he has quite the pitching throwing arm. (baseball is for girls - DWord.)

We are now relaxing beside the receeded waters of Lake Martin in Alabama. Damon is actually asleep in the hammock on the porch. The hammock is currently swathed in sunlight, so I imagine he is quite warm. The two body pillows and blanket he is bundled in probably help as well.

The drive down was fine. We left later than intended, but really we don’t have any kind of schedule we had to keep. We took a different route to bypass the urban sprawl of Birmingham’s 280 and it was a much more relaxed drive. And Fuller was content/ amused by his “in-flight movie” brought to him courtesy of his Crumley Grandparents’ early Christmas gift- a portable DVD player.

My neice and nephew are already here and we are all excited about our first Christmas at the lake. Linda has decorated the house with all kinds of cheer and the kids are agog with wonder.

And I wonder if there is any coffee.

I still have so much to do. Yet, I still found time for this.

Found via notmartha.

I am trying to sort through the things that I have to do today and the things I want to do today. We are leaving for Alabama early tomorrow morning so packing is a have to. An evening meal is necessary, so time in the kitchen is another have to. I have a gift for someone, but which category does driving to her house fit into? There is a crochet project that I have been working on, but I think that falls in the want to category. The wrapping paper in the living room should be put away, but again which category applies? And of course there is always the lingering want of a nap at some point in the afternoon.

I know all the “have to”s will be accomplished, somehow. Until then, I want to have a cup of tea.