girlfiend

We spent Saturday night at Boyfiend’s cousin’s house in the Poconos drinking, barbecuing, and making s’mores in the rain with Boyfiend’s brother and sister and their significant others. Sunday morning we woke up ate breakfast and cleaned the place since it’s being rented next weekend. On our way home we stopped at the lake just to look at it, since Boyfiend’s incapable of seeing a body of water without staring at it for a while. It was a bit cold, so rather than stand on the water’s edge with my nap-ready Fiendling I took him over to the playground that overlooks the lake for a few minutes.

It was one of the large, plastic staticky playgrounds they make these days- the kind with the bright yellow slides that make your hair stand on end. He climbed for a bit then indicated he wanted to go down the slide. I sat him on my lap and we started down. It was a twisty slide and when we hit the first twist we slowed almost to a complete stop. It was one of those moments that probably happened in an instant but felt like forever. I realized that the Fiendlings new shoe got stuck in the curve. We kept going but his foot didn’t. I freed his foot and we slid to the bottom but the damage was done. He started wailing just as Boyfiend and his cousin walked toward us from the water.

We weren’t sure how bad the damage was. His nap was long overdue so he could have been crying so hard because he was tired and hurt, not just hurt. We got his shoes off, gave him some Tylenol and got him into his car seat. I sat in the back with him and rubbed his forehead until he fell asleep and Boyfiend drove us home.

At home when he woke he was in better spirits but his foot obviously still hurt. He didn’t complain when we examined it, but he wasn’t putting any weight on it. It wasn’t swollen at all so we decided to wait for a bit and see what happened. We took a walk and picked up some Motrin. Then we stopped for mango gelati for me and ice cream for Boyfiend and the Fiendling. We stopped a small dog park near our house and watched some dogs run around for a bit. At this point the Fiendling seemed to want to walk but fell over each time he tried. I decided to just call the doctor and see if there was anything else we should be doing. She told us to take him to the ER for an x-ray.

So we went. Three hours later we were sent home with a sprained ankle diagnosis. There’s nothing to do but give him Motrin, ice it as much as he’ll let me and keep him off of it for a few days. He woke up in pain at 2.30 in the morning but he slept the rest of the night. He still can’t stand or walk so he’s back to crawling. His mood is good considering, but I feel just terrible. I feel like it’s my fault since he was on my lap when we went down. And if I hadn’t forced him to get big boy shoes, his foot wouldn’t have gotten stuck. It’s like the time I broke my cat only this time it’s just a sprain. I was afraid they were going to make me talk to a social worker.

I’m glad it was nothing too serious but I’ll feel better when he’s walking again. Taking my baby to the emergency on Mother’s Day wasn’t fun but it could have been worse. One of the moms on the crazy messageboard’s baby daddy got a DUI, tried to escape when he was pulled over, and was tasered in the head by the arresting officer. I’ll take a sprained ankle over that any day.