Lessons Learned (from a 2 Year Old)

Well, here are a couple of things that I have learned with Gunnar this past weekend. 1) Sadie will NOT die of thirst in three days without water no matter what Mo Mo Sadie tells me...

2) I will NOT eat berries off of Mo Mo's Virginia Creeper vine and tell my mama "popples" = apples (and yes they are yucky), because you wind up in the Emergency Room and you become POPULAR right away...

Dang kid runs the water hose 24/7 while he is here and empties Sadie's water bucket within minutes of me filling it. At least for the most part he is past the part where he puts the dry dog food in the water and makes it look like floating poop. I can't stay ahead of him so that Sadie has water and sometimes food. But that's ok, I guess. Sadie loves to play chase with Gunnar and Kamryn and for the most part stays out of their way. Jenna says he's going to be a fireman when he grows up and he will be able to save lots of lives and it is because of all of the training he had at Mo Mo Sadie's house when he was little.

Now for the ER story...I was out early Friday morning with the weed eater getting the last of my weeds knocked down when Jenna comes and asks me what kind of berries are on the bush. I'm thinking "berries...bush..." then she asks me again and I finally realize she is talking about the Virginia Creeper that grows up my chimney. She told me that Gunnar ate a berry. I told her to look it up on the internet... and it says "Highly toxic and can be fatal to humans"...I run through the shower while she calls Poison Control who tells her to get him to the ER. On the way down the road I call ahead to the ER and tell them we are bringing in a 2 year old and that Poison Control said to get him to the ER. We get there in 2 minutes and they are online researching the Virginia Creeper. I had no clue that dang thing could be poisonous, of course until Friday, I'd never had anyone go out and eat the berries either. Misti Eagar was the RN who was online and said that they might have some good news for us. Not ALL Virginia Creepers are toxic and I looked at one that looks identical to mine and it isn't supposed to be.

Once they started working with Gunnar (who up to this point is completely normal) he starts having a fit and wants to go home, wants to go find "Pamryn", etc. They check is temp, his blood pressure and then want to draw blood. His mama leaves the room in tears and I am left to help make him into a human burrito with one arm out and hold him down. It was so hard - I wanted to cry, but I needed to keep calm for him. Then they put a urine collection contraption on him because they needed to make sure his urine was clear, not cloudy and no crystals. (Question...why do when you want someone to pee they won't and when you don't want them to, they will?) Finally, after about 2 hours we found pee in the baggie and they had to send it to the lab before we could be released. We finally were released at 12:30 and Gunnar and his mama were a little worse for wear. We went and collected Bailey who had been rescued by Aunt Maggie and went to lunch at Booga's. Gunnar who has a history of not eating, scarfed down his cheese crisp. I have NEVER seen him eat that much.

His daddy was a nervous wreck in the valley until we were able to report an "all clear". Needless to say, our Friday was NOTHING like we thought it might be.

Jenna has been making tutu's for Bailey for dress up. Yes, I know she is only 6 months old, but she does look cute in them. Jenna brought some tulle for Maggie to make a tutu for Kamryn and it turned out cute, too.

Weston and his two brothers, Max and Spencer came up Friday night and camped on Terry Flat. Jenna and I went out Saturday night and took chicken to bbq. Max and Spencer had made this huge bonfire for Gunnarwho really just wanted to put a stick in the fire and go home. The bonfire was awesome...but Gunnar wanted to go home. I guess he was a little unsure being out at night like that.

This morning I made biscuits and gravy for everyone and then Weston and Jenna loaded up and went home. It was a busy weekend, a traumatic weekend and I am sad to see them go. The good news is I am going down the end of this week for my dr. appt. so I will spend time with those two babies again.

On a really traumatic note...Sarah's son Ethan was riding his quad and had a serious wreck. They flew him out on Friday night and he had surgery this a.m. he broke the (femor??) above his knee, two bones below his knee, tore up both ankles, and has a cracked pelvis. He was given a priesthood blessing and with all of the trauma to his body, he has NO internal injuries, no head injuries, just what I mentioned above plus scrapes and bruises. He has a couple of hard days ahead of him and when he can get up and get around on his own, he will be released. When we think of how serious it is and how much worse it could have been, we KNOW that he was blessed.