Anthony on , 11 Oct 2007 05:41 pm

I got a phone call from a traumatized Gwen at work around noon today.

She was calling from a drop-in clinic on Granville Street: Aidan had fallen and she thought that he broke his nose and could I come home please?

So I threw my gear on my bike and rode home. They’d just returned from the clinic and I got the full story:

Apparently, while in a store, Aidan became frightened of a Hallowe’en display, stood up in the stroller and tried to escape by going over the back of the stroller. The inevitable happened, and the stroller tipped over backward, bringing The Boy with it. Apparently he smashed into the floor face-first.

They happened to be right beside a drop-in clinic and so Gwen rushed into there and was seen by some doctor. The doctor apparently didn’t even touch Aidan (who was pretty weepy) and told her to give him Ibuprofen and watch for signs of a head injury. They headed home and had just arrived when I walked in. Aidan’s nose was pretty bruised looking, and clearly swollen. It didn’t bleed more than a trickle when it happened, and was just a tiny bit crusty when I saw it.

Aidan was in good spirits, happily playing with the “new truck” that Gwen fished out of her purse. He wouldn’t let us touch his nose, and trying to ice it to deal with the swelling was pretty much impossible too. After discussing the way that the doctor had “examined” Aidan, we decided that if nothing else, we’d feel better if our family doctor took a look at him too. So, we walked down to the doctor’s office (sometimes living in the centre of the city has distinct advantages) and snuck him in. Dr. Izen took a thorough look and told us that things were probably fine, but she couldn’t quite tell if the nose was broken or if he had a deviated septum. Of course the now crying and squirming toddler wasn’t making things easy. So, she wrote up a requisition for an xray and we walked the block to get the xray (well, ok, we stopped into Wendy’s for some lunch in between too).

At the xray clinic, it was traumatic for both the toddler and the daddy. Aidan took one look at the xray table (where the tech wanted him to lie down) and started bawling. And clinging. The boy was like velcro. We tried a number of strategies to get him into place, but he’s very determined. The xray tech called in reinforcements and in the end we ended up wrapping him up in a lead blanket, pinning his legs and arms to his side while constrained by the blanket. And crying hysterically. The reinforcement was in charge of the lower half, and was losing that battle while I was in charge of the upper half and keeping his head more-or-less on the xray film plate and parallel it. I was losing that battle too. The tech got one shot off, ran to get it developed, and then passed it by the radiologist to make sure that it was a good shot. The whole time the reinforcement and I were trying to keep Aidan on the table and wrapped up in the blanket. The boy was still hysterical. Fortunately the first shot was apparently clear enough (no apparent break!) and we were able to release the rest of the boy. I say that because by that time he had worked a leg and an arm out of the cocoon.

And as soon as we exited the xray room, the waterworks turned off immediately. He even said “sorry” to the techs.

Anyway he doesn’t look too bad right now, and hasn’t been at all grumpy. Hopefully the bruising goes away after a few days…

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Gwen on , , , , 01 Sep 2006 12:47 pm

Since Saturday was taken up by looking for and failing to find glasses, Sunday morning we went to Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. Aidan slept very well the night before so we figured we could get a bit of a hike in before he needed his nap. So 10:30 ish we set out for West Vancouver.

The entrance to the park is off Marine Drive about halfway between Ambleside and Horseshoe Bay. The drive is very scenic and the houses you can see along the road are beautiful. I can only assume that the ones on the water side are gorgeous since you can’t see many of them. By the time we got there and parked Aidan was raring to get going.

We walked through the lovely park down the Valley Trail to Starboat Cove, took some pictures, and continued to the Light Station and the Lighthouse viewpoint. Again we played with my camera and took some pretty decent pictures. We had a snack and Aidan had some running time by the Nature house and Sk’iwitsut buildings. We then set out to the West Beach trail to another viewpoint. Just before the viewpoint on a nicely groomed trail but for one rock that caught my left foot and I twisted my ankle and scraped my knee and leg for the first time in years. (I’d say at least 15 :p) After trying to clean it up as best I could with baby wipes we kept walking and about 15 minutes later Aidan was asleep in the backpack. It is amazing how cute he looks when he is asleep. Anyway, I guess the pictures will tell the whole story.

(Which I will add to the post as soon as Aidan naps.)

Aidan and Anthony at Starboat Cove, Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver 27 August 2006

Lookout over looking Starboat Cove (City of Vancouver in the distance)

Light Station over looking the Lighthouse

Aidan and Anthony (Anthony thought this looked like he had a beer belly but it is just his shirt puffing a bit because of the backpack.)

Snack time for Aidan and a chance for him to run around in the dirt a bit. (He was filthy in about a minute.)

Me, looking westish towards Howe Sound on the West Beach lookout.

Shore Pine Point

Look at that Road Rash

Aidan asleep on the Shore Pine Trail

Aidan still asleep at the car. Unfortunatly he woke up when we put him in the carseat and didn’t nap anymore that afternoon. He did go to bed early though.

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Gwen on , 01 Aug 2006 08:18 pm

Today my baby boy got his first black(ish) eye. Sigh, he is such a boy!

Aidan loves to climb, and he loves books. Not just his books, but Mommy’s books. The ones that are on the shelf that he shouldn’t be able to reach. So, what did Aidan decide top do today? Well, he decided it would be fun to lure Mommy into a false sense of security. He decided that it would be a good time to climb up on the bottom shelf and reach as far as he could on tiptoes. He decided it would be a good idea to pull as many books as he could down to the floor. What he didn’t anticipate was that he would fall on his butt and that the books would fall on top of him. He didn’t understand that if that happens you should look down, not up. And then the small hardcover that he knocked down wouldn’t poke you under they eye with the sharp corner.

When I heard the crash I turned around and Aidan had already closed his eyes and was in the silent part of the scream. I comforted him as best I could and he stopped crying fairly quickly. It was as I was sitting down with him that I noticed what had really happened. Until then I just thought some of the books had fallen on his head. Ouch! Corners of books can hurt. Thank goodness it was a small one and his black eye is only a small bruise. On the up side, 5 minutes of breastfeeding later and he was asleep for a three hour nap.

I hope he has learned his lesson. Hmm, not counting on it though. :)