One for the baby book

This is probably one of the hardest blog entries to write, because I'd do anything to take back what happened, and somehow putting it in writing makes it all too permanent, but Oscar broke his leg. Rather, I shouldn't say he broke his leg. He really had nothing to do with it. It was the 26" fall off a window seat, face first onto industrial carpet that broke it. Now, when I say "break," don't envision a baby in traction with machines blipping in the background, because it's not that serious of a fracture. He's fine. It's a hairline fracture in his tibia (or shin bone, for those of you not married to a doctor), commonly known as a "toddler's fracture." Let me explain:

On Friday, Annie had her last day of school and her class was having a concert for the parents of songs they learned over the year. Oscar and I went to cheer Annie on and I was sporting our new DSLR camera to properly capture her cuteness. Oscar was long past due his morning nap, however, and immediately complained about his seat in the peanut gallery of a carseat and demanded I hold him. That, or the whole concert would come to a screeching, and I mean literally screeching, screaming halt. So, I picked him up but also wanted to take some video of Annie's production so we could show Papa what he was missing. Note to all of you out there: DSLR cameras require two hands. All the time. So after taking a few wobbly one-handed shots, I decided that Oscar could chill on this floor pillow that was on the window seat I was sitting on, all but 2 inches from me. I could keep an eye on him and record Annie's cantations at the same time. And, given that Oscar was so exhausted, I figured he'd be pleased to just chill and listen to the music. So just as I was lifting the camera to my face to take a picture I hear a horrible thud. I look down and all I can remember was that I saw Oscar on the ground, he immediately screamed a cry I had never heard before, I scooped him up and ran out of the room. He took a few minutes to calm down, all his parts seemed to be in order. There was no blood, no immediate bruise and he just seemed completely jarred by the whole experience. I knew exactly how he felt.

We returned to the concert, I put the camera AWAY, and watched her last song about a little shiny fish which progresses up to a humongous whale. Oscar seemed to break into tears intermittently though which I took to be normal after what he went through and his exhaustion. So I brought him home, put him to bed and about an hour later, he woke up whimpering. I fed him and then he seemed genuinely happy. All but for one thing: he didn't really want to put any weight on his left leg. I called the pediatrician as I was intending to do regardless, and they told me, given his age, I should bring him in just to be safe and I agreed that sounded like the best thing. So I picked Annie up from school, grabbed us some sandwiches (meanwhile Oscar is all smiles, and I'm like "He's totally fine. THANK GOODNESS!"), and headed to the doctor's office. We had to wait an hour, but finally saw our doctor and after an exam he noticed that Oscar did seem to squirm when he touched his left shin to the point that he would feel better if we got it x-rayed. Long story, short: We went to the imaging place, Papa joined us, many x-rays were taken, a neighbor picked up Annie, and Oscar has a broken leg.

Now, because it's a holiday weekend, the Orthopedic office was already closed, so we have to wait until Tuesday to see what they want to do about it. The pediatrician seemed to think it may just be a "wait until it heals" sort of thing, and not to put any weight on that foot. He doesn't walk or crawl, so that seems pretty easy. But he could get a cast or a splint, we'll just have to see what they think. Meanwhile, here's a video I took today, two days after the fact, to show you how Oscar is faring:

As you can plainly see, he has pretty much forgiven me because that's just who Oscar is: The happiest baby alive. He HATES to be sad. Whenever he's in pain or tired, he'll do anything he can to give you a smile. It's heartbreakingly sweet. So, I think we're all going to make it through this. Oscar may have to suffer through a few uncomfortable nights and the nickname "limpy," and I may have to invent some sort of superglue for moms that keeps one hand stuck to the baby at all times, but in the end we know that a family's love is stronger than any bone in the body and luckily, we've got that in spades.