T-minus 7 years, 8 months, 12 days

After years of being foretold a great and terrible day came to the Peterson household.

Behold...

On Monday night while delivering Christmas gifts Matts was a little bit too enthusiastic and on the last house jumped out of the car and while protecting the precious gift of hot chocolate, landed straight on his arm.  One look at his already swollen arm with a dent where there should be a point and I ran Matts up to our children's hospital.  (insert genuis moment/mom tip; Nordstrom's cashmere pashminas make excellent slings).  We were making great time, in spite of it being rush hour, until the last turn before the hospital where there was a gas main break.  I tried several different routes and they were all closed.  Happily, firemen and police are very nice when you have a kiddo with a broken arm in the back seat and escorted us through the barricade to the emergency room.  Once the nurses saw his arm they started numbing patches for IV's because "it looked like there may be alot going on".  (insert mom freak out).  They also started him on lortab which made for a much more enjoyable and entertaining evening as we made our way to x-rays.  3 hours later we left with a blue sparkly cast (the nurse was joking when she offered him sparkles, but he thought they'd be 'christmasy'), a broken elbow (really, his elbow, the pointy part) and a whole new appreciation for holiday angry birds and crazy cat videos (Matts + lortab = very talkative and very easily amused).  Oh, and antibiotics for an ear infection (earlier that day he'd been complaining about his ears hurting and I made a bet with Reed that within 24hrs we'd be at the doctors.  Strangely, victory isn't always sweet)

Needless to say, it's been a long week.  Matts has done remarkably well during the day.  But, nights have been rough.  But, thanks to some tips from a friend yesterday I finally got him comfortable enough to sleep through the night.  We go back for x-rays tomorrow and then the week after that.  We need to watch the break closely because it is very near the growth plate and the joint and we want it to heal perfectly.  If at either of these visits there is movement he's off to surgery.  So, we've been taking it really easy around here.  

Interesting aside, when we got back from Thanksgiving I felt an enormous amount of pressure to 'finish' Christmas completely, even down to the wrapping and stocking stuffers) before the weekend of December 10th.  Completely random and insanely early date, but I'm so glad I went with it because now we are just settling in to enjoy a quiet Christmas break :).  

*Any tips on maintaining a stationary 7 year old would be greatly appreciated*