Kaelin's Winter Break

Well, there goes basketball season, indoor soccer season, acrobatics, rhythmic gymnastics competition season, PE and recess. How are we all going to survive a Kaelin who is unable to work off all of her energy? Imagine the Tasmanian Devil unable to spin and create chaos and destruction. Scary!!!!

Wish we had some great story on how she broke her 4th whatever bone in her hand. She didn't do it running and jumping. Or flipping and spinning. Or even playing sports for that matter. She did it messing around with her brother Spencer, blocking his jabbing fingers into her belly on Sunday.

When it happened, she was more dramatic than usual and got pretty emotional. She's a tough cookie, so if she's in tears, you know she's hurt. But it passed quickly and and she could move her fingers. So we thought she was ok. She had told us she heard something crack though. And then the next morning when she awoke, her hand was pretty darn swollen. We sent her to school and I called the doc and couldn't get her in until today (Tuesday). She was favoring it a bit (so unlike Kaelin) and wincing doing simple tasks. Took her to her pediatrician today and had it xrayed. Got referred to the urgent care at the Orthopedic clinic. They put her in a cast for about 4 weeks.

Spencer feels pretty bad about it. But they are both to blame. Kaelin had her pick of colors for her cast, and she had it narrowed down to the dark blue or neon green. She saw a man getting a dark blue one on his hand and she liked what she saw. I think I would have picked pink myself. I'm not a pink girl, but for some reason, have felt myself drawn to it lately.

When Kaelin found out it was broken, her reaction was "oh poop". She told the doctor she had a goal of never breaking any bones. And while in the car on our way to the orthopedist, as she's pondering getting a cast, she bursts out "how will I eat?" LOL Her mood perked up when she realized that we will miss the last two qualifying meets for Rhythmic Gymnastics (she loves to train, hates to compete and be judged). They are Feb. 3 and Feb. 9. I'm really bummed because I was really looking forward to watching her compete and she's been looking really really good lately. Now she won't be qualified to compete at State, to make Regionals to then compete at Nationals. Who knows how she would have faired at any of them, but now we won't get the opportunity.

It's a good thing I'm not in Reno right now, with the weather and the broken hand thing. But now it will be easier for those left behind when I go, since they will have 4 places less to drive to, taking hoops, soccer, gym and dance out of the picture! Although, Dave's first reaction was that now they can work on strengthening her left hand (dribbling, shooting, etc)!

She's not in a lot of pain. She has a high pain tolerance and she's a little giddy over the excitement of it all. She's in good spirits and is looking forward to showing off her arm accessory tomorrow at school. And like I said, the idea of not doing those two meets relieves her stage fright.

Why do these things always happen in January of a new year though? Spencer broke his arm in two places in January of 4th grade. Of course they can't happen in December, when we've already met our medical deductable and it won't come out of our pocket. It's always something isn't it? You'd think we've had our fair share of the medical bills to last a lifetime! Oh well, this will just help us meet our deductable sooner rather than later! Guess that's how the cookie crumbles, or the hand breaks!

xoxoxo
shauna

ps. I'm kinda excited about the prospect of scrapbooking broken arm photos! I can do a page of both Spencer and Kaelin LOL