"It's Just a Cast"

This? Right here? This is NOT what they show in those diaper commercials with the cuddly, sweet smelling newborns. It is also not what they tell you at your baby shower when you are opening adorable monogrammed onesies. It is 100% not what anyone said to expect when I was pregnant. 

But, this-I have discovered-is real life parenting. 

Because real parenting is cramming yourself on the table next to your 4 year old and holding him while the nurse is squeezing the cast on his arm, trying desperately to distract him with a story from Harry Potter about when he had to regrow his bones after he fell during Quidditch. Real life parenting is not looking at what the doctor is doing and trying not to let your kid see you looking anxious because he is really being so, so brave and, well, they have do this regardless of how anyone feels. 

Whew. I am glad that business is over and we have yet another notch on our parenting belt. 

As for the cast part, well it has not really been that much of a journey. 

It turns out that keeping an easily removable object on a small person many, many hours a day for 4 years IS, in fact, a journey that gives you amazing perspective when your kid has to keep a cast that cannot be removed on his arm for a month. #imomforlife

Also, why do I even have this picture?

I love how shiny and clean it was after the first day. 

We, of course, had Orange Leaf for dinner on his first full cast day. I mean, we felt sorry for the kid. 

But, after about 24 hours there was no more sympathy because we all realized he could still actually do everything, despite having his dominant arm tied up.

This was a picture from school. Also, he did wear other shirts, but at first it was easier to do button down and we don't have many options.

Part of what made this whole thing pretty legit was all of the gifts from people. Aunt Manda sent an awesome football game,

an amazing art teacher I work with sent some clay and markers

and he quickly began destroying things instead of making things,

Bobble Cole sent new science stuff,

a Robot making kit,

and a cool Science book! Also, Noni bought him a Ninja Turtle backpack, which we were most grateful for because his Transformer one broke and I was trying to get through another year with it.

He literally did not miss a beat. "It's just a cast, Mama, " he told me one day when I told him to be careful.

Love this pic.

SO much jumping, running, attacking (it hurts to get hit with that thing), throwing, hitting, hurling, etc. Just a little flash of neon up there.

And, he knocked it out at baseball practice, too. Well, technically he couldn't bat, so he did not knock anything, but he hustled like crazy, chased every ball and did some sweet flips on the hill at the end of most practices. 

Substances that were on his cast before it was removed:

sweat, (so much sweat), blood, tears, syrup, food coloring (many colors), glue (white and green glitter), gum, dirt, red clay, mud, play doh, a staple that was stuck on the side, raw egg, a spot of something sticky that is anyone's guess, Icee, ketchup, milkshake, olive juice, vinegar and a piece of a paintbrush was wedged down in there from when he was trying to scratch an itch. 

But, today all of that was gone because it was sawed/cut off. I walked into find this nurse person sawing away at his arm, Anderson crying, Max screaming and my mom taking care of all of them. 

The nurse person was not nice and not careful and it was really sort of traumatic for everyone. 

 But, then we smelled it and everything was better.

 There was giggling.

 Thankful for all of the love and also a little confused why Nicole was the last person to sign it, yet the only name that smeared.

He still has to be careful for 2-3 weeks (no sports or "roughhousing") which is incredibly unfortunate for all of our sanity because the kid is unable to sit down for any amount of time. Luckily swimming is safe and we belong to the Y, so we celebrated tonight!