Sticks 'n Stones & Broken Bones

So, I mentioned that Curtis fell off the bunk bed our first day at Disneyland. We weren't sure what we should do about his sore arm. Should we take him to the ER in Anaheim on a Sunday afternoon? Stubborn Curtis won't even let our pediatrician look in his ears without putting up a massive fight, how would he do in an ER for five hours?

We decided that we'd keep an eye on it and see how he felt the next morning. The good news was that he slept just fine, the bad news was that he still wouldn't let us touch his arm in the morning. He wasn't crying or complaining about it, so we decided to give it one more day.

We then repeated the process.

Each day, it seemed to get better. I'd ask him how it felt, squeeze it at different spots, ask him to bend it or flex it or whatever. Though it was still a little sore, he soldiered on and happily tea cup-ped and Lightning McQueen-ed and Buzz Lightyear-ed through Disneyland.

By the time we left Anaheim, he seemed to be completely better.

When we got back home, we still had the feeling that we better take him to doctor. The pediatrician poked around a bit and thought everything looked okay. (Of course his first two questions were: "What happened?" followed by "When?" Uh, about 10 days ago. We're good parents.) He then sent us to get some X-rays just to be sure.

That night, the doctor called us back. Our little guy did in fact have a small crack in the bone right above his elbow. He told us to go to Primary Children's Hospital to get a cast put on it.

We tried to get him excited about having a cast. "Curtis, do you remember when Paige's friend Mackenzie got a cast? Everyone got to write their name on it. That's awesome, huh?" His ears really perked up when we told him he'd even get to choose a blue cast, his favorite color.

The next day we made our first trip to Primary's (we've been pretty lucky so far, no major sickness, no stitches). We had the last appointment of the day, on the day before Thanksgiving. The place looked like a bomb shelter--kids of all ages all sad and wrapped up in their temporary casts. Not Curtis, though, he was sitting there, cast-free, playing Angry Birds.

When it came time to actually get the cast, he was understandably pretty nervous. His eyes lit up, though, when the nurse let him choose his cast color. He passed on the red, the pink, and the electric green. And then he even passed on the blue. He chose black. That's what tough guys do.

A few minutes and a few tears (but no major meltdown) later, the cast was on. And this was our new boy.