Cast Off Celebration

After six weeks of avoiding some of Crew's favorite things; pools, beaches, excessive handwashing and impromptu baths (without the use of Press'n Seal wrap), it was finally time to ditch the cast.

We headed straight to the ocean to celebrate.

We no longer had to worry about sand or water getting in his cast and I don't know who was happier; Crew or me. We both did the happy dance along the shore.

October Pier Walk

When Crew broke his arm, the swim lessons that he was finally thriving in and trips to the pool and beach came to an abrupt halt. He asked us every single day if we could go to the pool. When we told him "No," he'd ask, "Can we go to the beach?" Again, we'd have to break the news to him that he couldn't get his cast wet, so the pool and beach were not ideal places for us to go.

But we couldn't completely keep away from the shore in our beautiful October weather. We made peace with a bike ride along the boardwalk and lunch overlooking the ocean, followed by a walk on the pier. That way, Crew's cast could remain sand and water free but we could still get our fill of salty air, waves and surfers.

That lunch view was hard to beat.

The boys were so happy to be in our favorite place that it didn't matter that we left the buckets and boogie boards behind.

Crew was especially grateful to be back after our multi-week beach hiatus.

He plopped right down to soak it all in.

Nash joined him.

And did a little of his own relaxation, in typical Nash fashion.

We stopped to listen to a guitarist on the way back to grab our bikes.

Finn was tuckered out by that point.

We caved on our "no going in the sand" rule a bit at the end because Crew wanted to go on the swings so badly and we couldn't bear adding another "no" to the list. He had close supervision to make sure his cast didn't take a dip in the sand. 

Blake and Nash quickly relocated from the swings to a gigantic pile of rocks. 

But not Crew. We didn't go to many playgrounds during the time his arm was casted because most of the parks in our town also have sand. Crew would have stayed on that swing on the beach all day if we had let him.

Some ocean air was just what we all needed after being cooped up more than we were used to. It was enough to tide us over a couple more weeks until Crew's cast came off for good.

Casted

My big plans to get caught up on documenting life since September didn't exactly pan out before the end of the 2016. So here's to January. And here's to rewinding several months to fill in the gaps.

A few days after Crew broke his arm, we went to the orthopedic surgeon to get him casted. He was given a booklet of color choices to flip through and he instantly settled on black. I asked him if wanted blue or green or orange and he insisted, "I want buh-lack." Black it was. We picked up some metallic sharpies on the way home to fill his cast with signatures.

Crew's cast was exciting at first but he got sick of answering the question from strangers, "How did you break your arm?" over and over. Once he realized he couldn't get his cast wet and riding his bike became more of a challenge, the novelty wore off. 

He still figured out a way to cruise along with his elbow up in the air.

Even with a backwards helmet.

It was actually shocking to us that in our eight years with four boys, this was our first cast. We figured we were due.

iPhoneography: Broken

We weren't on our end of summer birthday high for long before reality hit.

Crew started eliminating his nap over the summer but fell asleep often enough that I put him down most afternoons.

He still slept in a crib. I figured the only way he might doze off was if he was contained, without the freedom to roam around and play with toys during nap time. Physically, he could absolutely get out of his crib, but he never did. He would simply call me whenever he woke up and I'd go in his room and tell him he could get up. Then he'd carefully climb over the ledge and that was that.

Until one afternoon when he didn't fall asleep and he heard his older brothers come home from school. They were playing loudly outside Crew's bedroom door. He wanted to join the party immediately so he jumped off his crib ledge. He landed directly on his arm and shrieked in pain.

It didn't take long for me to realize that it was more than a bump or bruise and we needed to get it checked out. We began a long process of going to Urgent Care, Radiology and eventually ER. It was a Friday afternoon near closing time so we kept getting sent to new places.

The one perk of multiple stops was the multiple stickers Crew received.

While we were walking to the Emergency Room, a fire truck pulled up.

The firefighters were nice enough to let Crew check it out.

They also gave him another sticker to add to his growing collection.

Finally, at our third office of the night, we recieved the results from Radiology that Crew's arm was indeed broken.

He had a buckle fracture affecting both his radius and ulna.

I had to hold his hand steady during the x-ray so they could get a still shot.

They wrapped up Crew's arm in a splint and a sling at ER until we could get him a hard cast at Orthopedics a few days later.

He was sure in good spirits after all the waiting around we had to do and the pain he must have been in.

He certainly earned a date with me after enduring all that trauma.

He had no idea at that point what he would have to give up for the next 6 weeks; he was just happy as could be with his sling and his ice cream and couldn't wait to go home and share his adventure with his brothers.

Our first order of business upon arriving home was converting his crib into a toddler bed.

Look Who's Walking

We officially have two walkers in our family.

The race was on to see who would walk first, and it ended up being a tie. Both Troy and Crew took their first steps, crutch-less and furniture-less, within a few days of each other.

Troy has some pretty intense hardware in that knee of his, so walking has been a very gradual process. But his limp is getting less and less prominent, which is a good thing since we are leaving for New York in two days. That's one city where lots of walking is pretty inevitable.

Mr. Crew has become a full-fledged walker as well. It still throws me off to see him toddling around.

We're so happy to finally have a houseful of walkers. It has been a long road to get to this point, and it sure makes life easier.