A baptism, an accident, and Easter

I have a few other things to post ahead of this, but I will post out of order for the time being. This past Friday we headed out of town for the weekend to Tri Cities. Our niece Stella was getting baptized and we were excited to be there to support her. Chloe gets baptized at the end of this year, so we were anxious for her to witness her first baptism.

Tri Cities recently got a Cost Vida, so we headed there Friday evening with Ben's parents and sister's family. I've been there once with my sisters and mom in Utah years ago and remember it being yummy. It did not disappoint.

Saturday was a gorgeous day- sunny skies with temps in the high 60's/low 70's. Perfect weather for an Easter egg hunt. Here are all the Andros grand kids (minus baby Preston) with their baskets on their heads, ready for the big egg hunt.

Off they go!

10 kids in all searching for candy filled eggs.

One of the last pictures of Leah running (details to follow)...

Everyone gathered around at the end to empty out their eggs and eat their findings.

Cousin Sammy helps Leah look through her basket.

After going through all the eggs, the kids happily ate candy and played in the back yard. Leah has always been more clingy, but has been going through a stage where she has been especially attached to me. But on Saturday, she was being very independent and was off running around and playing so happily with everyone. Around 1:00, Ben's sister Bethany brought over a crying Leah to me, saying she had fallen down on the trampoline and had gotten hurt. She hadn't fallen off, but had taken a double bounce from Mitchell. She was crying, hard, and I could tell she was hurt, but it was past her naptime and she was also exhausted, so we decided to just take her home and put her to bed. I did notice that she refused to walk, which is not normal.

She fell right to sleep at home, but awoke within 45 minutes or so, still crying out in pain and still refusing to walk or bear any weight on her hurt leg. She definitely wasn't making this injury up, nor was she feeling any better after her short nap. We were worried now and decided to head to an urgent care.

Poor Leah. She was absolutely miserable. She was in so much pain and kept switching back and forth between whimpering or crying. She kept announcing in a pitiful voice, "I can't walk!" and "My leg hurts!" It was tricky to find ways to hold her that were comfortable for her.

The doctor checked her out and wasn't convinced that there was anything seriously wrong. I didn't think so either. There was nothing protruding and now that it had been a few hours, there was no swelling.

She sent us down the hallway to get some X-rays. Leah was not thrilled about that, but we kept her distracted by playing Angry Birds on Ben's iphone.

She especially didn't like it when they made her roll over on her knee. That is where it hurt the most. Poor, poor baby.

The X-rays came back and they looked fine- nothing looked broken. The doc said it must just be sprained and that she'd probably be up and running again in 24-48 hours. We rushed home and barely made it in time for Stella's baptism. I was so glad that we didn't miss it.

Stella and her siblings and my kids, minus Leah

Stella and Chloe

It was such a nice evening and we are so proud of Stella for the choice she made to be baptized. We spent the evening back at the Williams' house having dessert and visiting. Leah spent the entire evening on my lap. She did not move the entire evening.

Luckily, she slept through the night, so things could be worse, but she was still feeling horrible the next morning and still in lots of pain. As soon as she woke up she wanted to be held and was still refusing to walk or put weight on her hurt (right) leg. I ended up carrying her around the entire rest of the day with only a few minute break.

A picture of all of us before we went down to look at our Easter baskets

It really was so sad that Leah couldn't run down the stairs with the other kids. Like she told me again, "I can't walk. I can't walk."

Leah sitting here on the floor without me or Ben was the first time she has sat alone since the accident. She didn't move a muscle, though. It hurt too much. The eggs filled with candy were a good distraction from the pain.

I asked for a smile and I got one. I was so happy to see that smile after so many tears.

I asked her to show me where her leg hurt. This is where she pointed.

Right on her knee.

It had been less than 24 hours, but she was already getting tired of not being able to run around, so she asked for a bandaid. My kids are obsessed with bandaids and think that they will fix anything, so I really think she thought it would literally take away her pain and make it so she could walk. I was hoping it would help her feel motivated to try walking a little bit. So Nana found an Ace bandage and wrapped her knee up.

She bravely stood up and took a very painful step and collapsed. "I can't walk!" she told us. My poor baby. She's broken!

I love that Easter is always on Sunday. And I especially love when Easter is on a beautiful, sunny day. After getting everyone in their Easter outfits, we went outside for some quick pictures before church.

Lexi looked cute in front of Nana's flowers.

The bright sun made Chloe look extra pretty!

I was hoping to get one of just the kids as well, but with Leah unable to stand I knew that wasn't going to happen. We were just lucky she wasn't crying in any of these because she didn't feel well at all. She was a trooper as I awkwardly held her as to not disturb her leg.

Happy Easter!

After church, we had a delicious Easter dinner- ham, creamed potatoes with peas, green beans, baked beans, homemade rolls, strawberry spinach salad- so, so good. And then homemade carrot cake for dessert. Best Easter dinner I have ever had, hands down.

The kids had cupcakes for their dessert.

Leah finally got off my lap for a few minutes to eat a cupcake. I felt so bad for her- I know she was in lots of pain, but it was exhausting holding her and carrying her around for 24 hours straight. It was like having a 25 pound colicky newborn. She was either whiney or crying almost all the time and anytime I had to give her to someone else so I could use the restroom or have a break, she would cry and scream.

We got home Sunday evening and her leg was no better Monday morning. I called our pediatrician first thing this morning and got in right away. He felt her leg and could tell that when he squeezed/felt her knee that she was in considerable pain.

He ordered her some X-rays. Her second set of X-rays in 3 days. She was much calmer for these X-rays.

It did not take long for the results to come back from these- broken! The tibia was broken, right below her knee and was broken into her grow plate. The doctor said that toddler fractures can be harder to detect, but that this break was fairly obvious, so we're not sure how the urgent care clinic in tri cities missed it. They did not have a radiologist look at it there, so that must have been the difference. We just received a call from the clinic tonight saying a radiologist had just looked at the X-ray and they found a fracture (there had not been one on call on Saturday).

Our pediatrician sent us over to Seattle Children's pediatric orthopedics right away to get her leg casted. Luckily, Ben was able to meet me for the casting part.

Lexi and Mitchell patiently and quietly waited in the chairs while Leah got her cast on.

They first put on the sock- I knew it was going to be a long process when Leah screamed during that part.

She kept saying "He's scaring me!"

They have to bend the leg/knee up to cast it in that position and with her break right at the knee, it was painful for her and she said "He's hurting me." Poor baby. It was heartbreaking. Ben tried distracting her with his phone, but it didn't work very well.

She was hysterical.

All done, just waiting for the cast to dry. Leah got to pick her cast color, kind of. Her favorite color is orange and she requested that color first. They didn't have orange, she I talked her into getting purple, the same color as her baby doll Tina, who has been by her side all day.

It took her a long time to calm down.

She was very glad to be able to sit up after the cast was dry. As you can see, it goes all the way from her toes to her diaper. She has to be in it for 4 weeks, which is actually fast. Kids heal so quickly. This same break for an adult would take 6-8 weeks to heal.

A group shot before we left.

What a rough 48 hours for this little girl. They gave her this little shoes to strap on the bottom of the cast. The doctor said that she can start walking as soon as she feels up to it and the shoe will help so she doesn't slip. I think it could take days before she feels comfortable enough to walk- she is pretty freaked out right now, and she's in lots of pain. The doctor said the cast will actually make her feel better. I sure hope so.

As soon as we got home, I gave the kids some ice cream, as requested by Leah. During all her screaming during the casting process I asked her what treat she wanted when she was done and she picked ice cream.

This little girl gets whatever she wants right now!

She's having a hard to adjusting to the cast today. I can tell her knee feels better already- with a cast on, there is less jarring and it's more stable, but it's heavy on her small, skinny leg and she is tired of not being able to walk. She is totally dependent on me to transport her wherever she goes and is having a hard time adjusting to sleeping with a big ol' hard brick of a leg in bed. I'm sure she'll get used to it more as the days go on, but she's so young and she just doesn't understand. Poor, poor baby. No 2 and a half year old should have to be this miserable.

In spite of our family's first broken bone (besides me at age 15), we had a lovely weekend with family. Happy Easter, and happy healing!