Scratched cornea

Yesterday morning we were going to go outside and 'harvest' the garden. The weather is pretty miserable lately and the forecast is for frost this week, so we thought we would get the tomatoes in. There were a few more zucchini and cucumbers, but not much. For some reason, we didn't get any potatoes. I have now dug up all 2o plants, and there was not even enough there for two meals. Anyway, back to where the story had started going. Jorja and Ginny went out first while Julie and I were still getting organized. All of a sudden, the death wail was coming from the back yard. Jorja rounded the corner screaming and covering her eye. The long and short of it was that she found a bungee cord that held the pool cover on that I didn't clean up and got the end of it in her eye. After we got her calmed down and got her to open her eye, there was a visible scratch on her cornea. So Julie called the eye doctor and they were off. I didn't know eye doctors did emergencies. He confirmed the scratched cornea, but thought it would be all right in a couple of days. He gave her some eye drops and she has to go back tomorrow to get it checked. This time he is going to dilate her pupil though to see if anything was done inside. Poor thing. On the upside, she is looking cool wearing sunglasses to Kindergarten.

This afternoon I went outside to work at getting the rest of the garden ready for the rototiller. Ginny came to 'help' me while CeCe napped and Jorja was in school. We have some big, unruly shrubs the backyard that we don't like, and I ended up digging one out today. That was a lot of work. It's a good thing I had help. Well, in her mind anyway. About halfway through, she told me that she pooped. So she went in to get Julie to change her (I was way too muddy). She told Julie that she had to get back out there to work. She had fun though, talked non-stop for over an hour, worked on her slide, pretended the Nemo sprinkle was her baby brother ("SHH Dad, you have to be quiet. He's sleeping). Like I was the one making the noise. Then she was looking over the fence at our neighbour who was in his garden (he's probably 70-something). "I see a boy over there Dad. He's working in his garden too." I wonder how long it's been since he's been called a boy. When you're two, you don't really have that sense not to talk about people when they are right in front of you and listening. Oh well. Later.

Crash

Last night around 11:00, Julie and I were still downstairs when we heard a thunderous crash from upstairs. Jorja had fallen out of bed. I hurried upstairs as soon as I heard it, and saw her walking out of her room, holding her head and doing the 'silent scream.' I brought her into our bedroom to assess the damage, and then the screaming started. Much to my surprise, no one else woke up. I couldn't see any scrapes or feel any bumps, so after she was calmed down, I put her back to bed. This morning, she had a bit of a scrape and a bruise on her knee which 'made her leg stiff and hard to walk'. That is, whenever she thought about it. It didn't seem too stiff when she pedalled around the block this afternoon, but it was again at bath time.

Today turned out to be quite a nice day. I spent some time this afternoon in the backyard trying to tame the thistle patch beside the house. There's about a four foot wide section between the backside of the house and the fence that had had landscape fabric and crushed rock laid on it, but now the thistles are starting to grow. And it's in an area that you never really see, so when I looked the other day, it was like whoa! I've got to get a handle on that. So hopefully it is under control for now...until all the seeds grow.

Even though it has been fairly nice here, I have officially given up on getting back into the pool. I started draining it this afternoon. It will probably take a couple of days - I've got a hose strung out to the street so that I don't flood the neighbours out. It's kind of depressing because we never did get back into it after the algae incident got cleared up. I guess we'll see what next year brings.

Jorja is pretty excited to start Kindergarten tomorrow. We got the final thing she needed ready today. They are supposed to bring one of Mom or Dad's old T-shirts to wear for painting. So I found one today, and she and Julie wrote her name across the front in big block letters. She was pretty thrilled by the whole thing. When she was going to bed tonight, she gave me a big hug and said, "Thanks for the shirt. You're the best Dad." Almost made me a little teary. Later.

No socks!

Well, today started off with a bang, quite literally. Breakfast went by with no incident, and when Ginny got dressed, she decided she wanted socks. Shortly thereafter she decided to take them off. I was upstairs at the time, and she had taken them off in the kitchen. She came up the stairs, threw her arms in the air with her socks in her hands and declared, "I don't want socks!" As she did so, she lost her balance, went over backwards, did a backflip, half-twist, face-plant half way down the stairs and landed at the bottom. I saw the whole thing in what seemed like slow motion. I rushed down and grabbed her and then Julie and I started to examine her. Once she calmed down, we saw blood in her mouth, but it wasn't really obvious where it was coming from. Then Julie noticed her front tooth - when she touched it, more blood pooled around the base of it. It was a bit loose. Yikes. So I called the dentist (she's never been before) and they said they could see her as soon as we got there. So we all piled in and headed to the mall (the dentist is in the mall). Ginny wasn't overly cooperative, but the dentist did manage to get a look and a bit of a feel, and thought it should be all right. She said some would pull it if it was loose, but she wouldn't if it was her kid. She thought we should try to save it as long as possible. If there was nerve damage, it may get discoloured, but it should be okay. Just eat fairly soft things for the next two weeks (no apples!). So she has yogurt for lunch, pudding for snack, and we had pasta for supper. However, she was playing outside this afternoon and was supposedly sitting on a lawn chair properly when she came around the corner screaming again. She had somehow tipped the chair over, and there was more blood coming from her tooth. Sheesh. The rest of the day was probably fairly typical for her, but you don't realize just how dangerous she is until you are trying for her not to bump her mouth at all. Stressful.

We're heading south to Julie's parents' place tomorrow, so hopefully everyone travels well. One is teething, one is trying to knock her teeth out, and one is just broken-hearted when her sisters hurt. Are we nuts? Later.

Cuts, bumps and bruises

Today was kind of a rough day for the girls. It started this morning when Ginny went running though the kitchen, attempted the corner to go upstairs, and didn't make it. Her forehead hit the corner of the steps, and instantly swelled up and almost split open. There was a line down the middle probably a centimeter and a half long that almost cut through. I think we would have been heading for stitches. Needless to say there were a lot of tears. Jorja is such a little mother, she does not like seeing her sister hurt. Ginny was jumping around shortly after, but it looks nasty.

Jorja took her turn just before lunch when her and Julie went to check the mail. She wiped out and skinned her knee and another spot just above her foot. I think there was more wailing from her when the band aids had to come off in the tub.

I was carrying Ginny this evening and she says to me, "Don't touch my fart." What!? How or why would I want to touch her fart I say. She replies, "It's in my butt."