The dolphin cast

The only thing that seemed to cheer S up when she broke her arm was the promise of me decorating her cast with dolphins.

So, I was terrified that something would happen that would prevent me from doing that. I looked for dolphin fabric, since I suspected that would be easier to mod podge on than stickers/paper, but I didn't have much faith. When I made her kaleidoscope quilt, I'd looked for weeks for dolphin fabric with no luck.  I found some great dolphin stickers at Amazon for $2.43, so I bought those, and they arrived today.

When we got to the sports doctor today for followup, he confirmed that it is in fact broken, and showed me one of the other angles of the xray that I think shows the break a little more easily.






S chose a light blue for her cast color, and they told us they had a water resistant base material for the cast, so swimming, sprinkles, etc are NOT forbidden. We're just supposed to try and dry it a bit afterwards.  S made sure to rush home and tell her sister that HER cast is waterproof. Hah! K admitted to being jealous, even though she hasn't broken an arm in years.



When we got home, S wanted to get the dolphins on it right away. She wants to keep the cast forever, even after it's removed, but I told her she couldn't. Because of that, she got a little stingy with the dolphin stickers. She chose four to go on the cast, and is keeping the remaining eight.  I think it needs at least two more; I may talk her in to adding more tomorrow.













I used mod podge to attach the stickers.  I learned a couple things from the experience.  First, I spread some mod podge around the area where the sticker was to go.  I found it very helpful to get the stickers wet prior to applying- they laid a lot more flat that way.  I think that fabric would go on a lot better than paper, but since dolphin fabric with dolphins of the right size is so scarce, we had to make do.  Once we got the four dolphins on (and I may work on her to put more on there; we'll see), I put a light coat of mod podge everywhere, and shook some fine glitter on it.  Unfortunately, that doesn't show up in this picture, but her reaction to her cast is obvious.

A close up of the cast.

Broken!

This week, I've been babysitting a friend's 5 year old while she vacations in Hawaii (lucky girl!). I've had this nagging feeling that *someone* was going to injure themselves, and I was just hoping it wasn't the boy I've been watching.

On Friday, S wore a beautiful long dress and crocs. Of course this is the very best outfit to wear while climbing fences. She fell while doing this. She ran in, crying that she hurt her left arm.  It was not hanging at a funny angle, and she had a very specific spot that hurt the most.

Now, I have to admit that while she's tough compared to the average kid, she's definitely not the toughest of my kids. So her wailing and carrying on is a daily occurrence.  But, it was Friday night, 8:40pm.  My beloved Layton Kidscare closes at 9pm on Friday. So, I decided to take her in.  J felt like I was overreacting, and honestly, I was only about 70% convinced she had genuinely broke her arm.  I am in the "didn't take my kid to the doctor for a broken arm right away" club, and I'd rather not be a multiple entry member, so I decided to err on the safe side.

We got to KidsCare at 8:54pm. Plenty of time!

They got us in right away, and S didn't want to talk to the doctor, even though she was really sweet and nice and being really great with her. I explained what happened.

The doctor did a brief exam, declared her to be a very healthy girl otherwise. She said that S was letting her mash down on her arm pretty hard, but that they'd do xray, just in case.

After the xray, the doctor came back in and said it was a good thing we'd had it xray'd; there was a little buckle fracture.  Upon hearing the news, S dissolved into tears. She was so, so upset to hear that she'd actually broken a bone. It was kind of cute.

They gave us a brace to wear, and we're supposed to go see an orthopedist on Tuesday, where they'll give her a regular cast. I assume they will, anyway.

We were back in the car by 9:25pm. On the drive back home, it dawned on her that swimming is going to be out for a while. She was even more worked up then.  I have promised that when she gets the regular cast, I will mod podge dolphins onto the cast. That really calmed her down and cheered her up a bit. Because of that, I'm worried that when we go to the doctor to get the regular cast, he'll decide not to, that it's not broken badly enough, and the brace is sufficient.

Daisy Bridging Ceremony

It was planned for a couple months.  We were going to have a lovely ceremony for our Daisy Scouts to Bridge into Brownies.

I found a park with a lovely little creek, complete with a little bridge for the girls to cross over.

Invitations were sent. Time off from work requested.

I made three huge pans of brownies that looked delectable. One had chopped up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and chocolate chips. One had marshmallow cream and crushed oreos. The last simply had chocolate frosting and sprinkles.

Then, the day of bridging came.  It seemed chilly, but ok.  As the day wore on, the wind increased. A wind advisory was issues. From noon to three, the temperature dropped 25 degrees.  An hour before, it started to rain.

Well crap.


I was just about to call the whole thing off and reschedule for later (mentally sobbing over the brownies and the havoc that much chocolate would do to my diet) when one of the moms called. She had access to a church, and could even get a bridge for us!  Woot!

I made the calls to everyone, and got the venue changed. There was a minor hiccup because one parent wasn't crazy about the denomination of the church where the ceremony would be held, but they had their priorities in the right place, and came anyway.

I was a bit disappointed and rattled over my ideal not happening, but I think things went rather smoothly.  I felt awful because the mom who set the whole thing up is someone I have this ridiculous mental name block with. I know exactly who she is. I like her; she's funny, and nice and smart and really great about volunteering. But for some reason, when I first met her, I mentally stuck her with her daughter's name, and have fairly consistently called her by her daughter's name for well over a year now. Usually, when I get a name to stick in my head, it's there for life. I've been lucky up to this point for them to stick with the correct name. But I can't undo it.

So, I was trying to thank this mom for all the work she did. In my head, I was chanting "Don't say T, don't say T, don't say T".  I didn't.  I called her by my co-leader's name instead.  AW, man, SERIOUSLY?!  So now I've managed to not give props to the proper helper. In so doing, I gave props to one co-leader, and not the other. ACK!