Mother's Day 2011 ER Edition

Today I woke up to JJ offering me some of his "Dora Snacks," little fruit snacks that he loves. I was honored. He also presented me with a surprise cross-stick pillow that he made in school - a "surprise" that he's been telling me about for weeks. "Mommy, you know Mother's Day? I'm making a surprise pillow for you, a big surprise." It is actually lovely. It is actually cross stitch. Who knew?

So, we were minding our own business today, it was a lovely spring day. We went to the gym, then to a KC Royals baseball game with our friends Allison & Stella. The kids got to ride on the carousel, play in the kids water park, etc., and become generally acclimated to the world of professional baseball. We had free tickets from school. At the bottom of the 6th inning, Allison offered to take the kids to the restroom. While there, J ran across the bathroom and had a wicked fall on a WET slippery floor. We rushed to the First Aid Station within the stadium as he had a welt on his head the likes of which I had never before seen or felt on a child. He never lost consciousness or threw up which was good. We were encouraged to make haste for the ER at Children's Mercy Hospital, so off we went, Allison navigating the driving through new construction on the highway, as I tried to keep JJ conscious and alert. Stella helped with this as we played "I spy." I tried to remain calm but did feel a little panicky when he was having a hard time staying awake. In the end, his tiredness was probably because he exhausted himself from crying, rather than head trauma, but every episode of ER and Gray's Anatomy was clicking through my mind. Keep them conscious! After 3 hours at the ER we learned that he didn't have an immediate head injury, but he needs to be watched the next 24-48 hrs for the extremely rare possibility that he could bleed internally later. Two different MD's checked him out quite thoroughly, including all the usual vital signs tests, along with some added tests for his balance and coordination. They assured me they would not have let us leave the hospital if there was any question in their minds that he had an immediate injury. Poor guy has a very bad headache but the swelling went down a lot by the time we left the ER. I'm so grateful we were with friends who helped get us to the ER, stayed the whole time, and made sure we got home safely. Days like these are the hard ones to be a single parent, so we are especially grateful for Allison's help. She's a single mom too so she totally gets it. So there you have it, Happy Mother's Day! I have to say, even in spite of the trauma today, we had a good day. He was such a trooper through the whole thing. The nurse informed me that she was impressed when the Dr. wrote "Thank you so much for letting us see your wonderful boy," as the Dr. rarely writes notes like that on discharge papers. The kid charmed the socks off the ER staff. Crazy kid, I was proud of him.

So on a brief, but also true note, he also keeps getting busted at school lately for being too "touchy feely" with his little friends, most of whom are not amused. I think it is because he and I are so affectionate with each other all the time. He's been very kissy lately, so I'm trying to teach him about home behavior v. public behavior. We'll see how it goes.

Here follows a bunch of miscellaneous Joaquin-isms I've been jotting down on sticky notes lately.

He is starting to use more colloquialisms in his speech:

"I don't want apples every single time."

"I'll take care of it." He says that a lot when he is attempting to be helpful.

"We worked on handwriting a thousand times at school."

"What does 'or' mean on the news?"

"What's the news (on the radio or tv) for?" At this point in time he believes it is mainly to discuss the weather.

"I don't like girls. They don't share worms."

"Ole McDonald had a ponytail. B-I-N-G-O."


There's been a lot of talk about geography lately, as they are studying that in school. Kindergarten. Seriously. One day a couple months ago, JJ piped up from the back seat of the car, "Mommy, I know continents - North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe." My jaw dropped to the floor.

"What's Russia? Like Europe? Like brushing your teeth?

I got a call from JJ's OT therapist who left a message saying Joaquin informed her that we are moving to Sacramento to "study Chinese music" and go to a new foreign language school. She was so excited, confirmed there are a lot of great Chinese language immersion schools in that area, and would like to introduce me to friends in Sacramento, etc. None of the above is true. I talked to the teacher and she said JJ said Sacramento "clear as day." Later I asked JJ what he knew about Sacramento. His reply: "Is South America in China?" I believe she misunderstood that he said "Sacramento" for South America. And yes, we listen to Chinese music in the car all the time. I think he really wanted to learn on which continent China is located. I explained. Now he looks at me seriously and says, "China is in Asia, right mom?" So meanwhile his therapist spread the rumor all over school that we were moving to Sacramento so he could study Chinese. Umm, we are actually going to a new school, the Foreign Language Academy, right here in town where he will be immersed in the Spanish language. He will also study Chinese on the side. I had to correct this with his primary teacher too. It was actually a nice entree to letting her know the details around our decision to change schools, etc. She was supportive and I was relieved. I had a twinge of guilt for the transfer, but now I just feel some good closure. I volunteered for Teacher Appreciation Week, brought food and gifts, etc. Nothing like good closure to ease one's guilt.

I'm excited for the new school. They have both French and Spanish immersion programs and Spanish was the obvious preference for us given it's the 2nd language of many of our family members, including me, demographically it's the language to know in the U.S.A, and he can pick it up by osmosis. If there were a Chinese immersion school we would have jumped at that. He will take Chinese classes to keep up on things (mainly exposure to pronunciation) and my hope is by the time he reaches high school they'll offer Chinese in school. He's a sponge for language, as are children in general. If he becomes trilingual I will be tickled pink.

I have more sticky-note anecdotes but I'm too tired. Will pick this up later. I'm so glad to have this blog record. There are so many days when he does or says something amusing to me that I don't get recorded, and literally by the end of the day I will forget. But this is capturing a lot of the "stand-out" moments for me. I just treasure this kid, what can I say. Never mind, the ER trauma is the least of it, compared with the joy. Over and out.