Injuries and Accidents

Congratulations to Kristen over at We are THAT Family on your 2 Year Blogiversary! She has asked folks to send in links to our THAT family stories…. you know, the ones that make people ask “Is there something WRONG with THAT family?” I think every family with more than one member has at least ONE story. We have five kids, so plenty of blackmail material for stories here! Nothing has happened recently however, so I will take a trip down memory lane…

To the day when, a few days after we had finished the basement in our new house, G (then 5) climbed up on the back of the recliner, yelled, “Watch this guys!” and before we could stop him, he grabbed the cord to the mini blind and JUMPED off the chair, ripping the entire mini blind right OUT of the brand new, just finished window.

Or when finishing off the bathroom in that same basement, E was laying on the floor in the furnace room, so he could reach under the shower stall in the bathroom next door. He was using spray foam insulation to seal under the shower, and the furnace kicked on, igniting the fumes from the spray foam insulation. There was a loud BOOM! and E did a quick Larry/Moe/Curly move to extinguish the FLAMES which were all over his arms and head. He singed everything from his fingers to the top of his head, eyelashes included. Then the furnace filter caught fire and I could SEE flames in the air intake UPSTAIRS. 10pm, quick evacuation of deeply asleep children to the neighbor’s house. We were the first family in the brand new neighborhood to have a fire truck come.

And why we were so shocked when P was 7 and had cut a huge hole in a queen size comforter, to see what what inside?

Or to that one time when Daddy was playing horsey with G-9, P-8, and J-6, and he bucked P off… We heard a loud SNAP! and she jumped straight up in the air and screamed “I BROKE MY ARM!!!” And yes, she had.

Or when our house was for sale, and D1 (2 at the time) caught my dining room table on fire FIVE MINUTES before a family was to come and look at it. He had put a doily on top of a candle, and when it caught he tried to move it, causing it to land on the table. My husband was out of town. He burned his arm and I had to call a friend to come VERY FAST to help him while I desmoked the house!

And of course there was the day Daddy and G hit a deer with the Goldwing. When you’re doing 60mph and a deer lands on the road right in front of you, the one second it takes to realize it’s there is all you have… no reaction time. They had deer guts spattered all over them, but the bike stayed UP and other than G getting a bloody nose from smashing his face on Dad’s helmet, no injuries were to be had. Daddy said “Now I know angels ride motorcycles!”

D2- 7, our adventurous SuperBoy, wrestles anyone, any time, any where. Thus far he’s had 6 stitches in his eyebrow at the age of 2, and 4 staples in the back of his head at age 5. This is the boy who we have a picture of wearing undewear and a cowboy hat, posing with a big plastic shotgun in mock Wild West fashion. Future blackmail material for sure! I keep chipped ice on hand for his black eyes and bloody noses, which seem to be in abundant supply. His accidental injuries started even before the age of 2, however. When he was 9 months old, P was holding him on her lap one day. She was also working on her spelling lesson at the same time. He sneezed. She covered his mouth the second time he sneezed. She had a pencil in her hand, and he sneezed into the pencil. He has a permanent tattoo just under his right eyebrow.

And the time I nearly knocked myself unconscious in the YMCA parking lot, with D1 (6 mos.) in my arms. I stood up fast and hit the top of my head on the door frame of the slider door in my van. The world went black… I sat down, hard… but didn’t lose it completely. A few minutes and a big bump & headache later, we were sitting poolside watching the girls at swim team practice.

And last spring when J-15, ever the tomboy, took a REALLY BIG JUMP on the motorcycle… nearly giving her Dad a heart attack when he watched her NOT pull it off and crash… blood, bruises, and ready to try it again the next time they went riding. This, the same girl who has eaten a praying mantis and a live goldfish, on dares….

And P, our growing to be responsible teenager who is riding a city bus home from her 3 classes at the high school now. Who calls me. Every. Day. To say she doesn’t think the bus is coming because she thinks she missed it. And she hadn’t. And the next one comes in 15 minutes. And I tell her this every day when she calls. I’m thinking of turning the ringer off on the phone when she leaves each day.

This family is definitely a THAT family!