When I was 18 months old, I wanted to fly. So I climbed up on the top bunk and jumped off. I flapped my arms as hard as I could, and hit the floor. When I recovered, I wanted to try again, but my mom stopped me. Apparently I did not learn my lesson, in the moment. However I did tuck away that piece of insight.
My husband started rock climbing at 6 years old. We are both monkeys, so we gave our firstborn, the nickname “Monkey.” She is our funny, wild, fearless adventurer. Our second daughter, we nicknamed “Lioness.” She is very cautious, yet feisty. She holds her ground against her sister who is twice her size. Usually instead of calling her Lioness, we call her, PipSqueak. At this point I think Little PipSqueak will be a better climber than her sister, but she’s just too small to climb anything except the kitchen cupboards.
Instead of bunk beds, we gave our girls have a mattress on the floor. The tallest piece of furnitures their room is the nightstand, which is 17 inches high. I just measured. I do not worry about them getting injured while they are supposed to be sleeping.
Early Monday morning, I heard the girls begin to stir. Talking softly, than louder. Giggles. Footsteps running across the floor. And then CRASH! Little PipSqueak had jumped off the nightstand. She landed wrong and appeared to have rolled her ankle. No bruising, no swelling. But she refused to walk. So for the next two days, she sat on the laps of Gampa-Gramp, aka Mema and G-pa (Duane’s parents). PipSqueak had them wrapped around her little finger, carrying her wherever she wanted to go.
This gave Mama a nice break, since I got to spend the nights cuddling with a restless toddler. Giving her ibuprofen at 3am, after she tried to get out of bed and walk to the potty. She collapsed to the floor wailing, and did not stop crying until the ibuprofen started working.
PipSqueak has been potty trained for a couple months now. But now she’s wearing pull-ups, since she can not walk. It is quite interesting to help her get pants on and off to go potty, while trying not to drop her.
On day 1, Dada took PipSqueak to the chiropractor, because that is the first thing we do when our kids get hurt or sick. Chiro said if she is not putting weight on her foot by the end of the day, than we should get an X-ray. So on day 2, I called the doctor. They could not get us in until then following day.
On day 3, our Lioness seemed to be regaining mobility and independence. She crawled up and down the stairs. She could even climb on and off the couch, only using her good foot. Fortunately, I still have an baby exersaucer, which she is thrilled to play in.
At the doctors office, PipSqueak sat at the little table playing with toys. Then she slipped off that little chair and tried to catch herself, this hurt her foot and resulted in tears. She began protesting loudly. “Chair hurt my foot! Go bye-bye car-car!” Then we were called back for her X-ray.
Just a week ago we did our annual trip to the children’s hospital for a Well Child Check-Up plus Audiologist, Speech Therapy, ENT, and a sleep study. So PipSqueak is a professional patient. Getting covered in stickers for the Sleep Study, and then cleaning up that mess, was a rough ending to the series of doctor appointments.
Now another Doctor appointment, where they touched her ouch her ouchy foot, which is now starting to be a bit swollen. Then over to the lab for an X-ray. PipSqueak is more than ready to be done with doctors. Unfortunately, the X-ray showed a bulge in the bone of her calf. The doctor called it a small fracture. This explains why her ankle and foot appear to be fine, yet she will not put weight on her leg.
Now it is Day 4, and we get to go see the Orthopedic Doctor. To put a cast on her leg.
Not the most fun way to spend the summer. At least PipSqueak is the child who hates water. When we go to the lake or river, and Monkey is in the water the whole time, regardless of how cold it is. But if PipSqueak gets a drop of water on her, she freaks out, “it’s wet! I cold!” And insists she needs dry clothing and wrapped in a towel to stay warm and safe.
At least we have had a lot of fun already this spring & summer. After our sleep study, we went to the zoo as a family. We joined the homeschool group at the water park for Monkey’s Birthday Adventure. Not to mention weekly play dates at the river and weekend trips to the lake. We went camping twice already. Monkey learned to paddle her kayak (her birthday gift from my family). We even got PipSqueak to ride in our friend’s big kayak, where she stayed pretty dry.
PipSqueak is very good at being a spectator. She will continue to enjoy riding in our wagon everywhere. We upgraded from the stroller once she started to unbuckle herself. But thankfully, we do still have the umbrella stroller. I have been using for doctor appointments, since she currently will not get out of it. Not sure what the rest of the summer will look like. But I am sure it will be interesting.
