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- We took this photo last year, remember? (Abby looked much happier last year to take a ride in the hammock – she definitely was not sure what she was getting into this year!) We still love and adore and use our hammock – it’s held up remarkably well! Abby’s Saturday #413
- Who wants to hear a (long) story about a marble?
(Spoiler alert, it’s a little gross.)
So, last Friday night – there was a lot going on. The kids were packing and getting ready to leave with my parents for a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa at the lake house. Derrick and I were prepping for a big wedding day on Saturday (Derrick was my second shooter, which is why the kids were going with my parents).
I was sitting in the entrance to our laundry room – which is where I store all of my camera gear – and I was organizing equipment and clearing off memory cards. Braelynn and Leander were in the living room, and I heard Braelynn say: “Let’s build a marble run!” Leander enthusiastically agreed and I heard them get the box out. No problem – they love building runs and have gotten pretty good at it lately.
A few minutes pass, and I hear Braelynn teasing Leander that she’s going to eat a marble. She’s obviously teasing him, but I yelled out into the living room, “HEY! Don’t fool around – we don’t eat marbles!”
I went back to organizing memory cards when all of a sudden I hear Braelynn start screaming at the top of her lungs and very quickly after that, Leander starts screaming at the top of his lungs.
There is clearly a difference when kids scream between “anger” or “fighting” and “hurt” or “something is very wrong” – parents are very attuned to how their kids scream, and we instantly knew that something was very wrong. Derrick came running from upstairs and I dashed into the living room from the laundry room.
Braelynn was crying and screeching: “He swallowed a marble! He swallowed a marble!”
And Leander was crying, mouth open wide, tongue stuck out – just wailing.
It was obvious that even if Leander had swallowed a marble, he wasn’t choking on it. So, we worked on calming everyone down enough so we could figure out exactly what had happened.
And the story came out that as Braelynn was teasing that she was going to eat a marble, Leander actually popped one into his mouth and swallowed it down.
Derrick got on the phone with Leander’s doctor to ask what we should do – it obviously wasn’t stuck in his airways, but it was down in his stomach somewhere. His doctor advised us to take him to the ER so they could evaluate him.
So, we tossed him and Braelynn (still very much sobbing) in the car, dropped Braelynn off at my parents, and took Leander up to the hospital. Thankfully, there wasn’t anyone in the ER and we were pretty much seen right away.
After the initial shock of the entire situation wore off, Leander went back to being his normal silly, happy little boy. He was sliding all over the exam room on a round stool on wheels, cracking jokes, and being completely normal. The nurses loved him and the doctor told us that if it went down, it can (and will) come out. His lungs were clear and as long as it got past his airways – that marble was down in his stomach.
They gave him chips and some Gatorade to eat and drink to make sure that all went down just fine (and it did). And in less than 2 hours, we were out of there.
Since he was “fine”, we sent him off with my parents for the weekend (with the lovely request to keep an eye on his poop so we would know when the marble came out the “other end” – sorry Mom and Dad).
Derrick and I had been intending to go on a nice date-night – out to a nice chill kid-free dinner – but after all of that, we opted for take-out from a grocery store hot-bar and a movie in our living room. What a “fun” Friday night.
Fast forward all week – waiting anxiously every day for Leander to poop, then looking through it every day (ick). The doctor we saw in the ER told us he would probably pass it in 24-48 hours, but the paperwork they sent us home with said 5-7 days. So, we waited, and waited, and waited.
FINALLY, this morning, the heavens opened up and the angels sang, and we were given the beautiful gift of a MARBLE in the toilet. Celebrations were held all around and I’m just so relieved for this entire thing to be OVER! - I was just super thankful that Derrick was home for the entire ordeal! Over the last 12 days, Derrick has traveled for 8 of them. He’s been down in West Virginia and up in New York (his company has gone through some major system updates and as the Dispatch Supervisor, he’s needed to be “boots on the ground” to help everyone get up and running). It’s been a long two weeks without Daddy, but thankfully, he came home Thursday night and has no traveling plans in the near future.
- Otherwise: it’s been a lovely week! We’ve had our windows open and have enjoyed all the fresh air. Braelynn and Leander even had a small lemonade stand last night. (Where does Braelynn get her attitude when it comes to confidence and selling-abilities? While the thought of a lemonade stand would have intrigued me as a kid, I would have NEVER had the confidence to actually pull one off. Even as an adult, I still am slightly terrified at the concept. But not Braelynn! She boldly stands out on our sidewalk, waving to every car that goes by, confidently selling her lemonade (and artwork) to anyone who will give her a glance.)
- Speaking of our big girl though, she got her very own library card this week! I needed to go to the library to return some books and without any prompting, she asked if she could sign up for and get her own card while we were there. I said, “Sure!” and she did. She proudly checked out 8 of her own books (a few readers, a few books about animals, and a few drawing books). How did she get so big and grown up?
- So, it’s the middle of September and I STILL have not editing our family “daily life” film from August – how in the world has that even happened?! I have never gone this long without getting that done! To my defense, we spent the first (almost) week of September at the lake house, and then with Derrick being out of town, I’ve just completely forgot about it. After all, isn’t it still August? Needless to say, that’s at the top of my to-do list this week. Yikes.
- It might seem silly, but I got new cushions for our dining room chairs this week and WOW are they beautiful! I’ve been side-eyeing our old cushions (which we’ve had for like 10 years) for a long time now (they have been disintegrating for a long time), but I was hesitant to order new ones. I finally pulled the plug and it feels SO GOOD. I specifically picked them because they came in a pack of six – so many cushions I saw for sale online only came with two (or maybe four), and since I have six chairs, that just felt so overwhelming.
