{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{funny}

Ruby jumped off the coffee table onto her big sister, who was sitting on the sofa. Which is nothing unusual. Ruby is quite the daredevil athlete.

What was unusual is that she began refusing to walk or stand and complaining that “My weg hurts“.

Hubs and I examined her repeatedly and saw no wound, no swelling, no bruising. But after a fussy evening and rough night with her, hubs took her to the E.R.

Turns out she has something called a “toddler fracture“, apparently extremely common.

The first day she was tired and probably a little traumatized from the ER experience. She slept most of the day. The next day, Sunday, she spent most of the day in the rocking chair with daddy. Monday she sat around on everyone’s lap and looked at books. But Tuesday she started doing this:

{happy}
I love this picture.

{real}

This is nothing unusual either. It’s a baby swing, hardly shocking. What’s different is that I’ve never owned one before now.

Victoria has little fussy periods that I’ve discovered are nothing more than fatigue.

She doesn’t want to nurse and begins arching her back and fighting. She doesn’t want to be rocked or walked or whatever.

After a few weeks of having rubber arms by evening, I decided she might like a swing. I got one from a lovely mom on craiglist for $20.

When she gets those fussy times I plop her in it and she’s out like a light in say, 60 seconds or so. Sometimes I put a blanket on top of it to block out the light and stimulation. Works like a charm.

Never say never I guess!

{real}

We were having a bit of trouble with dictation in our homeschool so I posted my concerns at the Well Trained Mind forums. Lo and behold Susan Wise Bauer has a YouTube channel that I never knew about!

Watching her do a real live dictation exercise with her son was super helpful.