busted

It's official, my husband has managed to break or disfigure all three of my girls now. Ashlyn made it the longest, age 4 1/2 before he got her, lol.

Let me make it very clear, no one is is actually "abusing" our kids-just in case some unknown person happens to read this-the events have all been purely accidental. Some stupid, poor choices, but still accidents. The girls have been seen by their doctor & are just fine.

I'll start with Chloe, age 16 months. I went for a haircut, so Dan took her to his office so I wouldn't have to worry about her at the salon. He put her in her stroller to lay down (it was nap time) then realized he forgot her cup. He went to the back to get it our of the fridge, came back & she was face down on the floor, crying. He was gone all of a minute and a half. She seemed ok, but was favoring one arm & lost her balance once in a while. Three day's after she fell, we took her to our doctor. X-rays were taken and confirmed my worst fears~her left arm was broken. :o( They put on a purple cast, that went all the way up & over her elbow, it was so sad looking. On the up side, her Christmas dress did fit over the cast, so in pictures you can't even tell she had a broken arm! The worst part? The horrible looks people would give me in the stores, assuming that I was a bad mom, abusing my daughter.

Number two....

Emma was about 22 months, and it happened in the first house we ever bought. The house was a cute one, built in 1940, coved ceilings, old windows, steep stairs-things like that. I went to take a shower & left Dan to watch the girls. Never leave a man to watch children if there's football on-and it's "his" team playing. I finished my shower, dried off & heard Emma crying. Now, Emma had colic for a long time as a baby, so I was used to hearing her cry, so I didn't hurry really. Got dressed, came into the living room & found Dan holding her. He proceeds to tell me that she fell down our stairs, into the (finished) basement laundry room. He heard a noise, went to check & she was at the bottom of the stairs. Normally we had a gate locking the stairs off, but for some reason it was left unlocked that evening. My stomach instantly knotted up & I thought I would vomit right there in the living room. We could tell it was her left shoulder & took her to emergency immediately. She was obviously in pain, and we decided not to put her in her car seat, because that would mean manipulating her shoulder to get it buckled. We took the side streets & carefully drove to the hospital. Once there they took x-rays & told us nothing was broken, her arm was fine. I kept telling them it was her shoulder I was worried about but they said basically she was fine & we could take her home. Later I discovered that in their notes they said "child is fine, parents are hysterical, making the child nervous & scared". Two days after she fell, her shoulder suddenly turned a dark purple & I decide she needed to be seen by our family doctor right away. I went in & the first thing they asked was "when did she break her collarbone"? I was shocked!! I told them about our trip to the er & our doc was furious, encouraged me to sue in fact. Her shoulder was turning purple because a major artery was slightly pinched! Luckily they said it would be fine, but we had to check it often & watch her behavior often because if it became completely blocked she could die. Awful, awful words to her & strike fear directly into your heart. Thankfully nothing more serious came of it & Emma's a (mostly) happy, healthy girl today.

And number three...

Ashlyn, age 4 1/2 years. Early August. I am planning to go on my MOPS planning retreat with our steering team so Dan decides to take the girls on our churches family camp by himself. Ok, I wish him luck & tell them to be careful & have fun. he had run out of something, so took the girls about 5 miles down the road to a little store. On the way back he decided that it's just a quiet little dirt road, they don't need to buckle. The girls are estactic, they NEVER get to ride unbuckled with me. They decide it will be fun to stand up in the backseat, hold onto the headrests & kind of sway back & forth as they go around the curves. Dan sees them having fun & decides they'll like it even more if he exaggerates the curves, turning a little sharper. Ashlyn's not holding on on the last one. He turns the wheel a little too hard (into a turnout area). She goes flying across the backseat, hitting her left cheek on the door handle. He quickly stops, jumps out to check her, makes sure she's okay and then finishes the drive back to camp more carefully. I get home from my retreat and instantly notice a big bruise on her cheek & he tells me the story (yes, I was furious!). Fast forward 3 weeks to today. Her cheek now has a dent, kinda like a deep dimple, and a little bump right above it. She had a doctor appointment today, so I have him look at it. He says the dimple is basically where some fat used to be, the bump is where the fat was displaced to. She will likely always have a noticeable dent there, but it's very difficult to say how noticeable since she's so young still. We'll have a better idea once the rest of the swelling & bruising goes away. Nice. My girl actually has a "good side" for photos now!?

So there you have it, three girls-all broken one way or another by my husband. Next time I'll get a babysitter for him, lol!