A Child's Prayer

Tonight Derek put Jolie to bed, and I put James down. Fairly normal for a Friday night. James and I had finished singing and rocking. We knelt by his bed. I said a prayer first; then he followed suit. Normal. His prayer was unusually (or especially) charming, though... I tucked him in, kissed him goodnight, and then sprinted to the computer to "jot" it down (my typing is significantly quicker than my handwriting). This is what he said (sorry if it's inappropriate to post a prayer; I couldn't decide if it was):

"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day. (Long pause for thoughts...) Thank you that Kitty can lay by me and look at books. I love my grandma. AND I have two grandmas! One, two, three (counted this on his fingers)! And help us sleep well. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I seriously love this crazy, adorable little boy!

I swear I don't abuse my kid.

I really, really don't. But James does have a broken foot. And it is my fault.

Here's what happened: So after lunch today, James and I were playing and being pretty cute (if I do say so myself). I was holding him and rocking him and telling him what a beautiful, darling baby he was. :) It was pretty fun. I think having a baby in the house who gets all of that fussy sort of attention and being "to big for it" is hard. It was fun to be silly and lovey with my "big boy" for a change.

Anyway, holding him in a cradled position was fun for him but also unnerving. James is (and always has been, even as a wee thing) totally scared of heights and frights (not sure of a better word). Jolie, however, is a total adrenaline junkie. :) For instance, Jolie loves being tossed in the air. James has always hated it and clung for dear life onto our arms when we've tried. So cradling him was scary for him. He was super nervous that he would fall and/or I would drop him. No bueno, right?

So, being the good mommy I am and sensing a good teachable moment, I tried to explain to him how I would never ever have him do something that would hurt him. Then I explained that falling isn't all that scary, really, because Heavenly Father gave us really wonderful bodies that could help us fall safely. I then broke into song ("I'm all made of hinges, cause everything bends..."). I showed him how you can land squatted, bending your knee-hinges, and using your hands so you don't get hurt... blah, blah. He jumped a couple of times to practice landing.

Then I held him with my arms strait out (I'm 5'4" people... that's not high!) and dropped him. He caught himself and landed just fine. He was shocked and proud that he wasn't hurt- it wasn't even scary! He wanted to try it again. This time, I held him out again but tossed him up a little bit (his feet were maybe a foot off the ground). Perhaps not the best move on my part. Apparently when you land funny on your foot, you discover that your foot bones do NOT have great hinges and might- in fact- crack.

Apparently his did.

It's his left foot, on the outside bone. We didn't know if it was broken and assumed it probably wasn't. I mean, he was hardly off the ground and didn't kaboom or anything! It was naptime immediately after, so we put him down and hoped a nap would help him feel better. It did a little, but post-nap his foot was really swollen. And he wouldn't put weight on it... and it still hurt. So we got ready and went in to Instacare. They x-rayed it, and sure enough- there's a little fracture. Poor boy. (Crappy mom.)

Luckily, James thinks it's pretty cool. They don't do casts there, so he has a hard splint thing (like a half cast) wrapped with an ace bandage... which is then wrapped with blue sticky-wrap stuff, purely for the sake of giving him a "blue boot" (as requested). He doesn't seem to mind wearing it but cannot walk on it. He'll likely get a real cast on Monday when we meet with a podiatrist. But until then, I think we'll be watching a good deal of movies around here. And eating picnics in the living room. And probably having some delicious snacks as well. Yeah, not too shabby from a three-year-old's perspective. Maybe it won't be too bad after all. Let's hope.

So there's the story. James's first broken bone. Thank goodness I taught him so thoroughly about how falling isn't scary... FAIL!

Jolie's Impromptu Photo Shoot

Saturday morning, I had just finished feeding the kids breakfast. I was still messy-haired, stinky-breathed and bra-less. I probably should have hopped in the shower. Instead, I called my friend/next-door-neighbor, Aubrey, and asked, "Hey, you wanna come over and take some pictures of my kid?" She said yes and came right over (I was able to fix the teeth and bra issues before she showed up; worry not). These delightful photos were the results:

Isn't that one hilarious?? :)

Aren't they fantastic? My goodness, that little girl is gorgeous! Thank you, Aub. I LOVE them!!

PS. Aubrey's photography blog is http://beposhphotography.blogspot.com/ if you're interested (of course you are). :)