Black and Blue

We've had a lot of excitement in our house over the last few weeks. Michael has been rejuvenated by all the work my mom wants to do in the yard. On his last weekday off, we both spent the whole day outside working on the yard and other cleanup projects. 'Course Patrick and Bekah wanted to help too. We tried to accomodate them with tools that were more their size. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. But we could give them normal scissors to clip bushes while Mikey did it for real above their heads. Near the end of the day I hear a thump and a scream and then rushing footsteps. Patrick was gushing blood from his right cheek. He'd been a step or two up on the ladder with Michael, was trying to get off and fell face first into a sprinkler head that had cut open his cheek. We applied pressure to stop the bleeding. I held him and Michael drove us to my dad's office. Luckily Sariah was home and she watched the other children for us. Grandpa was more than happy to see us until he learned the reason. The whole office was "Ooooh!! Poor Patrick! You look so sad!" Six stitches later he got up from the exam table and received a colorable CARS sticker, some bubbles, a sucker, and a green band-aid. Then this comes out of his mouth, "Thank you for making me all better, Grandpa". (awwww! sigh) He made Grandpa cry with love and tenderness and we left the office. He was a trooper and a half.


He got them out a week later and it's looking so much better now. He told everyone he could about his stitches and all the things that he got from his excursion to Grandpa's office.

Saturday after Patrick got his stitches out, Bekah had a horrible fall from her stool in the kitchen and it took me a whole 5 minutes to realize that her left eye was becoming a collecting place for the black and blue and swelling. Such great timing! The next day in church the bishop's wife came up to me with a coy smile and said, "So, I hear you're beating your children..." Taken literally, it's really not funny, but knowing her and me, we both laughed a good laugh. Two Sundays in a row I'd shown up with a different kid and a different black eye. Finally, it's getting better and we're all getting back to normal. Two days ago we had family pictures and I'm sure I'll always look back on these with fond memories. Patrick's scar under one eye, Bekah's purple and yellow coloring under another eye, AND Bekah decided to cut her own bangs beforehand too. Apparently they were not the right shape or length. :)
This was two days after the fact, but it's still rather impressive. I gave her a choice of yellow or purple flowers to go in her hair on Sunday and she chose purple because it would match her purple dress and her purple eye. :) Her bangs are short in this picture too.