Gory Details

For those that want to see Grafton's injured finger, photos are now posted. Enjoy!

Rewind the Week

Okay, so let's pretend we can rewind the week, and just focus on the previous weekend. Here are some highlights.

On Friday, Grafton had a dinner party with his friend Joe, at Joe's house. (Mom and Dad also had dinner with Joe's parents, Liz and Bennett. A very yummy shrimp & grits dish was enjoyed by all adults.)

On Saturday, Grafton went on a tour of the northern Hill Towns in MA, enjoying time in Shelburne Falls, and driving around Zoar, Rowe, and Hawley. We stopped in Rowe to enjoy the serenity of the town's center, which consists of a church, a post office, a pond, and a gazebo. We later drove up, and then down, the "Meanest Mile in Massachusetts" (Kingsley Hill, Rd.) Grafton was not impressed and soon fell asleep.

On Sunday, we headed to the Stockbridge Festival Harvest with Nana and PopPop. Grafton had a fun time playing in a cornbox (i.e., a sandbox filled with corn instead of sand), taking an (assisted) plunge off the Hay Jump, running around the Hay Maze (video), and taking an (abbreviated) pony ride.

Injury Prone

When it rains, it pours.  Dad had just finished his commute to Boston, and was walking into the lobby of the Sealy G Mudd building where he works, when he receives The Call from Mom, "Grafton got hurt again."  This time, while at school and standing still next to a book shelf, he spontaneously trips on his own feet and falls head first onto the corner of the bookshelf.  Big bruise right between his eyes.

Mom, after receiving The Call from day care, headed over to school to see how he was doing, and took him out to lunch at Barstow's.  Fortunately, he was in good spirits, as you can see in the photo.  

On the commute home, after navigating 40 minutes of out-bound Boston traffic, Dad receives The Call again, "Grafton got his finger caught in a shopping cart and it's bleeding."  Not just any finger, but the same finger he hurt earlier this week.  Bandage comes off, another bruise, more blood.  Mom frees his finger from the cart, but has to head home immediately to administer medical care.

We're heading to the doctor today for a (scheduled) follow-up on his (original) finger injury.  Please wish Grafton luck today, since I don't think Mom or Dad can handle any more Calls.  Fortunately, Grafton bounces back from each injury in good spirits, and has yet to acknowledge any pain he might be feeling.

Interestingly, he hasn't been sleeping well this week, and refuses to go down easily at bed time, which is a first for him.  Perhaps he's missing critical sleep, making him a little less coordinated and careful in his movements?

Big Boo Boo on Finger

Grafton injured his finger today, while playing outside at daycare, around noon.  Apparently, he was running while pushing a tikes bike, and somehow fell when the bike flipped backwards on him.  We're not exactly sure what injured his finger, but it was a really bad scrape that took off a good bit of skin and half of the fingernail on his right middle finger.  Dad arrived soon after and brought Grafton to the emergency room at Bay State Hospital, where Mom later joined us.  After four x-rays, a couple of lidocaine shots, and a thorough saline cleaning, the official diagnosis is "open fracture and tissue avulsion of distal finger".  So there's a small break in the bone at the tip of his finger.  There was not much more to do other than to tape up the finger and send us on our way.   Grafton was really brave while in the emergency room.  He cringed when the shots were administered, but didn't cry, and put up with the saline cleaning very well.  He was also a model patient during the x-rays, holding his hand still in some difficult poses (while sitting on Daddy's lap).

As soon as Grafton got home and out of the car, his bandage fell off and onto the driveway!  Dad was picking up a prescription, and upon hearing the news from Mom, picked up additional bandages to re-apply the protective layers.

Of all days for a work trip, Mom had a flight at 5:30pm today, so had to leave for the airport soon after we all arrived home. (We deliberated about this for a little while, but decided Grafton and Daddy would be okay on their own.)

Grafton has been doing really, really well so far.  We played outside a little, picking up pine needles and stuffing them in his play car's trunk.  Grafton knew to keep his injured hand inactive.  Inside, he's continued to play with Matchbox cars and has yet to complain about his finger, and he's even holding cars in his right hand now.   He'll head to bed soon, and here's hoping he has a pain-free sleep.

Not yet sure if he'll be heading back to daycare tomorrow, but we'll play it by ear.  Mom will be home late on Tue night.

It will be a long time until Grafton's finger is fully healed, since the fingernail will need to grow back entirely, but the doctors believe he'll make a full recovery.  We're heading to a specialist on Friday, just to be sure.

Books, Rain, Stairs, Water

Dad picked up Grafton at little early today from school so that they could meet Mo Willems at a book signing in South Hadley. Once there, we picked up his latest book, "Knuffle Bunny Free", which Mo signed for us.  (He also told us to look for a cameo of the pigeon character from his earlier books, after we mentioned that we were big fans of the pigeon.)  The protagonist, Trixie, loses something dear while taking a plane ride, which we recently did ourselves ("we" = "Dad"), leaving Grafton's "Blueberries for Sal" book on the plane ride down to NC.  Grafton loves his new Knuffle Bunny Free book, which I think we read to him four times today already.

After the book signing, Dad and Grafton went for a walk in the MHC sports fields, watched the college teams practice their respective sports, and the proceeded to get drenched by a soaking rain, before heading back home.

While we're here, I'll mention that Grafton finally took a solid tumble down the staircase to the den.  He slipped on his PJ's pant cuff, leaned forward, but with nothing to latch on to, slide down 3 stairs head first, hit his lip on the bottom step, and then completed the maneuver with a full somersault, landing in the den on his back, staring up at the ceiling.  He cried, but was uninjured, and was back to playing within a couple of minutes.

With the help of a stool, we learned that Grafton really enjoys playing in the kitchen sink, catching the running water in his open bottles, and then pouring it out.  Again and again and again. This is great, since we can now cook dinner in the kitchen with him nearby, in one place, and wholly entertained.

Leader of the Chorus

Today's "Toddler 3 Daily Communication Form" had this note written on it:

Grafton like watching the rain through the open windows today. He also had the whole class singing along with "Nana PopPop coming soon"!

Tower of Cars

As parents of a toddler, we were having our typical Saturday night fun by shopping for groceries at the local big box store. As were we finishing up, we strolled down the aisle of kids toys. We passed by a rocking horse, which Grafton refused to try out.  We passed by baby toy after baby toy, none of which were of any interest to our son.  But as we approached the end of the aisle, we entered the hallowed ground of miniature die-cast cars.  Grafton immediately took possession of the Hot Wheels Dynamite Blaster Launcher (with 5 cars), held it up high and yelled "This One! This One! Buy It!" We laughed at his exuberance and ability to hone in on his favorite toys. While Grafton continued examining his new favorite toy, Daddy was checking out the other selections of die cast cars nearby.  Grafton, seeing that Daddy was interested in a different box, came over to see if there was anything else that could possibly be better than the Dynamite Blast Launcher. And indeed there was! It was a tower of see-through plastic, which stood taller than our child, and packed with so many cars and vehicles that it would be years before he would have the number skills to count them all (there were at least a hundred cars in there).  This was clearly a package worthy of a big box store, being of a scale that was at home alongside 8 gallon jars of mayonnaise and 20 lb boxes of over-sized muffins. After the few milliseconds it took for Grafton to recognize this treasure trove of vehicular joy, he lunged at the box, seized it with a strangling hug half way up its length, pulled it from the bottom shelf, and started jumping up and down with it, while he squealed in a voice that was too loud even in a big box store.  It took a while for us to calm his excitement, but we were eventually able to extricate the item from his rigamortis-like grasp.  With the simple phrase, "Let's keep looking," Grafton calmly decided to follow us down the next aisle, perhaps with the expectation that an even better selection of toys was possible.  In fact there were larger truck toys on the next aisle, each of which Grafton reached for in turn.  And with incredible restraint and understanding, he put each one back of the shelf when we explained that we were not going to purchase it, and that we should "keep looking."  While that line seemed to do the trick of letting us move on, when the end of the aisle arrived and Dad repeated it one more time, Grafton happily turned the corner into the next aisle, and said "more trucks." And so Dad, knowing there would be no more toys to see, felt a sudden pang of guilt and remorse at the misdirection he used to get Grafton to move on.  But not quite enough guilt to go back and buy any of the toys.  Of course, Grafton's birthday is not far off, and perhaps there will be a way to make up for it.