Well, I took Taven to the clinic Monday afternoon to get his stitches out. I thought that maybe, just maybe, he’d let them take them out without the same fuss he gave getting them. I was wrong.

We ended up doing almost the exact same dance with one minor exception. He let me lie him down on the papoose & he even let us strap him in with a silly little smile on his face. We made it a biit of a game by calling him a silly wiggle worm. He never admitted to being a wiggle worm though. He kept saying “no, I am not a wiggle worm”, the only thing he’d admit to being was “a Taven”. (That’s my boy! He is what he is & you’d better like it that way!)

Of course all the smiles & giggles stopped when the shiney metalic objects started coming around his eye. We had the same struggle to pin his head down while the Dr removed the stitches, but we made it through.

He’s still got some little bandages on there that are supposed to fall off after 2-4 days & they’re starting to peel up. Over-all I’d say he’s been a real trooper through all of this craziness (or did I mean crappines?).

We were headed over to hang out with Damon & Shannon, but I wanted to stop by the Mall to get my prepaid cell phone activated. On our way out, I was carrying Taven on my shoulders & when we got to the car, I got him down & started to put him into his car-seat & he leaned forward right as he was passing into the car.

His head bonked right into the top of the car door & at first I just thought he’s have a good bump on his head, so I just hugged him because he was crying. Then I leaned back to look at him & saw he had blood right above his left eye. He had a decent gash, maybe 3/4 of an inch long just below his eyebrow. He was going to need stitches.

After about 2 minutes, Taven was fine, the bleeding was minimal, and we were getting back in the car.  We went on to the Gray’s house then Taven & I went on to the CareNow up off of 121. We got in & they informed me that Taven hadn’t yet met any of his deductible, so this visit would have to be paid in full (ouch…). We got in & Taven WOULD NOT let them clean or even get close to his boo boo. I had to squeeze him in my arms to let the nurse clean it up enough to get a look at what was going on.

When the Dr finally came over & trying to clean it up again to gauge the necessary treatment, she said she couldn’t do this (because he was yelling & squirming too much). In the middle of this, Taven started saying “I have to go potty!!!”, so the Dr put a band-aid on his boo boo & we ran to the potty.

When we got back, there was a board with velcro straps sitting on the bed and the Dr gave me an option.

1. Go to Cook Children’s Medical center so they can sedate him & do the stitches there
2. Strap Taven in & listen to him wail until it was over

I chose option 2. (I hate the idea of drugging up our kids any more than necessary & he would be fine once we got him out of there).

Here’s what we did to the poor child.

We did not use the head strap or the little arm bands...

This was Taven, only he didn't have the head band

Anyhow, Taven was just screaming “I want Daddy!” “I want up!” “No, No, No” while 2 nurses held his head still & I held his hand & stayed where he could see me.

He ended up with 4 stitches & calmed down as soon as he was in my arms. He even said “Thank you for fixing my boo boo” to the Dr, (with a little prompting) but he didn’t seem to be mad at them at all.

I didn’t have the camera on me before his stitches, but I did get a picture on my camera phone (which I have no way of retrieving pictures from at the moment since it has no card slot, I can’t send picture messages, and I don’t have a USB cable for the phone). If I get my hands on the proper USB cable, I’ll try to get those pics off of my phone (& no, it’s not a “typical” USB connection. It’s some stinking odd-ball proprietary one. The phone is a Sanyo Katana LX serviced by CeBeyond)

I did take a picture this morning though…
Here’s what he looks like now.

He's still a happy little boy, with another scar to prove it. Click to see a close up...

Hurray!

I’ve decided to “clean” up the wording in this post, so you’ll have to use your imagination to get the gist.

Taven finally decided to not drop a duce in his pants today!!! He didn’t roll the dice all day yesterday, so he was relatively eager to give it a go today before nap time, and we HAVE LIFT OFF! (or touch down/goal/score/splash down/etc).

This was a first splash down for this kid! (I liked that euphemism the best) After a week and a half of no pull-ups, we’re SUPER excited that he’s catching on & letting go at the right time. We’ll see if the idea sticks. We had a big fan-fare, he got to open up a new Matchbox car, got 2, count them, 1…2…, pieces of candy, and LOTS of cheers and hugs & praise from Daddy & Mommy for dropping off his load in the proper docking station.

We’ve already decided that when Bradey starts showing signs of interest or when we think he’s ready, we’re jumping straight from diapers to underwear, no more pull-ups for this family (Woo Hoo!!! We’re already saving about $40 a month from losing Taven’s pull-ups!!!)

We’ve only had a couple of wet nights, so we’re optimistic on that front too!

Ooh! We also went to play & swim at some friends’ house on Friday and both Taven & Bradey had fun actually jumping to us in the water for the first time. Bradey even enjoyed getting dunked a little bit (as part of his landing from a 6 foot vertical flight, hehe), but of course, Taven HATED getting his face in the water. He’s just not that big into getting water on his head in general.

Welp… That’s the update for the day.