Collar Bones, Driver's Exam, and Preschool Pics

Last night, Samuel fell off of Benjamin's bed during story time. I have told the boys a gazillion times NO jumping on the beds in fear that they will get hurt. Well, last night Samuel was NOT actually jumping on the bed and still managed to get hurt. ugh. We often refer to Samuel as our "accident waiting to happen child" because he is so accident prone but this is his first broken bone (but he's already caught up to Don and I who have each only had one bone broke in our lives).

So, as the boys sat listening to me read them stories, Samuel apparently got too close to the edge of the bed and fell backwards off the bed... as if doing some sort of backwards flip in slow motion. And BOOM... WWAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! He cried for quite a bit (in Samuel standards because he usually takes a fall and keeps on truckin). But once we got him calmed down he seemed to be doing just fine... only he kept grabbing at his neck. At the time, Don was comforting Grace as she has been a bit fussy lately (she must have read my blog post bragging on what a good baby she is). So, after tucking Benjamin into bed I said to Don, "Do you think he could have broken his collar bone?" (I remember my cousin as well as my nephew breaking their collar bones about this same age). So, Don felt around his collar bones comparing the two sides to each other and declared "Yep, it's broke."

That realization is not one you generally want to make. But then you compound it with the fact that it's almost 9 p.m. which is well over the hours that the clinic on the military

installation here has closed... which leaves the German hospital. Don made several calls to figure out our next step... should we take him in? would they do anything? do we wait til morning? then, where do we go? how do we get there? will they speak English? While Don figured all this out, I packed up a diaper bag and got things in order for their venture out.

Before we knew it... he was heading back from the ER with confirmation that his collar bone was broken. Don reported that all went well, he found the hospital fine (thanks to our new GPS), they took an x-ray and that the doctor did speak English. They sent Samuel home with a little sling that they made out of some strips of gauze and told Don to follow up at the clinic today.

So, this morning we leaped into a busy day...

Although Grace slept until 10 a.m.! A new

record! I had been impressed when she slept through the night for the first time on Sunday and then Monday slept until 8:30 a.m. But 10:30? hmmm. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

We got Samuel into an 11:00 a.m. doctor's appointment. The clinic is close by (on the same military installation that Don works at). The doctor confirmed the break but said he wouldn't do anything for him. He should heal up nicely on his own in a few weeks although the bump he has on his collar bone will get bigger before it heals up. But the doctor said if they were to take an x-ray, a year from now that you probably would not even be able to tell that he ever broke the collar bone. He is doing well and doesn't seem to be in much discomfort (although he is tired and crabby today after staying up late for his trip to the ER last night!).

I took the driver's test so it's officially legal for me to drive here! (Although, we will be sharing the car until Don's car arrives). I was a little nervous because I have heard that some people do not pass on their first try and that you only get three attempts to take it before you have to wait a period of time to take it again. Don only missed 4 questions out of 100. The pressure was on! I was hoping to do that well but I missed 8 questions. You are allowed to miss 15 questions. Phew! Mission accomplished. My next challenge is to actually drive here... that will happen tomorrow when I take Benjamin to preschool.

Benjamin had picture day today at school. Our things have still not arrived so we're a little limited on clothing selections but I was able to put something together for him and he looked pretty cute. He told me he looked "handsome but not cool." I told him that "sometimes it was good to look handsome and that he didn't always need to look cool." He was okay with that.

While I was taking the drivers class and test (from 12:30 -3:30 p.m.) Don dropped the three kids off at Child Youth Services where Benjamin attends preschool and where the younger two are able to go for hourly care. It was Samuel and Grace's first stay there and they did fine. Samuel had been so excited to go to "school" for days now and was asking every time his big brother went if he was going to get to go too. So, although it was hard to think about him staying since he wasn't 100% today, I think he was glad to go.

Overall, our day seemed a bit crazy. But everything seemed to fall into place. Tomorrow is a new day with new challenges but hopefully a lot more low key than today.