Oh my.
What a night it’s been!
We have been preparing for our annual birthday marathon. Jack turns 8 tomorrow, Victoria turns 13 on Sunday, and Alex turns 4 on Tuesday. Yes, three birthdays over four days!
We all went shopping this afternoon for party and cake supplies, then we assembled the goody pots for the boys’ birthday party tomorrow. We filled little planters with seed packets, colored sidewalk chalk, mini bubbles and homemade flower pens (the type that stores use so you won’t walk off with them, with giant flowers attached to ballpoint pens) that we made together.
Then I slathered henna on my hair to touch up my blond roots, covered it with my traditional cheetah print shower cap and a child’s light blue knit hat that said “angel” over it (you need to keep the henna warm and a silly looking child’s hat works as well as anything!) and sat down to write an article while Daddy watched a movie downstairs with the kids…
And then the power went out.
Within a minute, four kiddos were up the stairs and piled on our bed in the pitch dark. Three of them were in various states of panic and one thought it was really fun. 😉
We sat together on the bed and made glow designs with my iPod (thank goodness for technology sometimes!) until it finally came back about 20 minutes later.
I took that as a cue to get the cakes in while we still had power, and Jack helped me make two cakes and get them in the oven.
In the meantime, I was still dealing with terrible nausea and stomach pains (the “morning” sickness is holding strong well into the second trimester!) so I jumped in a hot bath for a half hour while the cakes cooked….
Until the terrible wailing.
Poor Alex had been running down the hallway and had stepped on a piece of a tea set pitcher that had broken and scattered. Blood was everywhere. Victoria helped me strip him and put him in the bath with me, which instantly turned red. One look at the gash between his toes and I hollered to Daryl that we needed to take him to the E.R.
Daryl rushed us to the hospital, which is only a couple of minutes away. I ran in through the rain, with my bathrobed boy in my arms, wearing a housedress paired with lime green crocs, complete with my cheetah print shower cap and angel knit cap on top of my head.
I am fairly sure that nobody has ever looked more ridiculous upon entering an emergency room anywhere.
Everything turned out well. We were swarmed by nurses who doted on Alex and he charmed the pants off of them (he told one that her shirt was pretty and he liked it because it was covered with hearts and “hearts mean love.”).
The doctor was able to use superglue on the gash instead of stitches, so fixing Alex up was quick and painless. We even got to meet a giant, mellow toad on our way out of the hospital at the end of it all.
Alex happily told his adventures to his siblings when we got home, and I tried to rescue some very odd shaped cakes (cooking half time and then again later does interesting things to cakes, it turns out!).
Tomorrow, we’re heading 2 hours away for an outdoor birthday party for both boys. Friends are meeting us from all directions.
It’s supposed to rain.
Oh well.
At least life’s interesting!
A Magical Childhood 