Risky Business

Our little Tom Cruise (but much better looking of course!)

Okay, so this title is fitting not only due to the nature of these pictures =) but also because of the nature of our little boy. As I have said so many times- he is all boy! And he is all kinds of into some risky business. Risky business that has made me "knock on wood" so many times as I say "I can't believe we have had no stitches or broken bones yet!" I know that will surely come with time. This "risky business" did however take us on our 4th trip in the 2-1/2 years with kids to the Emergency Room (only one time has anything actually been wrong enough to be admitted).

On Saturday night, Ryan was in the kitchen with Bennett when he decided to tip the bar stool that we had his booster seat strapped to backwards. Since he was strapped in, he was there to stay for the whole four foot ride to the hard wood floor. He hit the back of his head on the floor and was of course absolutely freaking out and shaken up. I can't imagine how terrifying of a feeling that had to have been for him. Anyways- after he didn't calm down for about 15 minutes, had a good sized strawberry on his head, and was totally uninterested in eating (VERY strange for him) or doing anything else for that matter, we decided to take him in. I think we probably could have given him a little longer to calm down and avoided the ER visit, but oh well, I knew we slept better that night knowing he had been looked at by a professional. It was actually a very fast ER visit, as we were gone for a grand total of only about 2 1/2 hours- luckily they were not busy at all. They did an X-Ray of his big ole skull and everything looked good, the doctor said at most he might have a mild concussion and that it would be hard to really know at his age, as he can't tell us if something is wrong. She said the biggest sign is that he may be irritable over the next couple days. Haha, Bennett, irritable? Well, 90% of the time, Bennett is happy in the fullest sense of the word- BUT that 10 % of the time that he's not- he's not playing games- it is serious. In fact, I felt really bad for the ER nurses and doctor, because to put it frankly, Bennett was AWFUL. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the worst patient they had all week. I know a lot of moms probably think I am a bad mother for saying that about my own child, but I actually think being able to admit when our kids are terrible is a very important step to being a good parent. Denial doesn't do any of us any favors- I often hear parents say "Well, it's not that he/she was being bad..." and I just think to myself, man, sometimes it is that they are just being "bad" and being able to admit that to yourself is a start in the right direction. It doesn't mean we love them any less in the midst of their terribleness or that we don't ever "give them a break", I just know constantly making excuses for them isn't always the best thing.

Okay so back off my rabbit trail- the poor nurses couldn't do anything to Bennett- they weren't even doing things that hurt him, like taking blood or something. It was an absolute battle to take his blood pressure, temperature, and even when the doctor put him down to see if she could watch him walk, he turned and shoved his body against the wall and threw a tantrum, while emphatically shaking his head "no" every time we tried to coax him to walk to us. I believe it took three people to hold the strong little booger down to get his X-Ray. One of the nurses (who Ryan didn't care for) even asked us where he got his temper. Haha, Ryan said nothing while I immediately said " I don't know!!" Yeah, we both knew- and I'll give you a hint it's definitely not from Ryan. Not that I think I have a temper really- but I'm just more vocal than my dear quiet husband. Anyways, after the x-ray was done, Bennett calmed down a bit, and the people that were taking care of him got to see a little bit of his good side at least before we left. We really got to see his good side when we decided to stop at Wendy's on our way home (since this whole thing happened right before he was about to eat dinner) and got him a kids chicken nuggets with fries and chocolate milk and you'd have thought he had died and gone to Heaven. We thought he was sitting back their planning how he was going to injure himself tomorrow to get some more of that good stuff!- As I see him trying to climb onto our kitchen table now, he is off to a good start- you can't ever be too off guard with this boy around!