What I Know For Sure & #iPPP

The sun shone down like only September sun can, all brilliant and warm and bright.  

Unfiltered beautiful blue September sky.

The kind of sun that shines a spotlight on moments to hold onto.  Reminding us that winter will be here soon and it will be cold and grey and different.

So I sat in the sun and I watched my kids play.  I almost said the words out loud "remember this."

Turns out I will most likely never forget that moment, but not for the pretty, perfect sunlight.

"Moooooommmmyyyyy!!!!!!" I heard Lucy scream.

The fact that my 9-year-old called me "mommy" was the first sign there was trouble.  I'm "mom" now unless someone is hurt or scared or sick.  The high pitched scream was of course another clear sign that something was not right.

I raced over to the part of the playground where Lucy and JT had been searching for frogs.  (I was pushing Wade on the swing, keeping my distance because I have a frog phobia, yeah frogs, I know.) A dad was trying to calm Lucy down, but she was having none of it. "Nooooooooo! Get away from me!," she screamed at the guy who was just trying to help.

"It's a splinter," he told me, wishing me luck.

I took her hand and saw that the splinter was actually a small stick that was sticking out of the top of her thumb. And oh wait, the end of the stick was sticking out of the middle of her thumb right bedside her knuckle.  Splinter my ass, that was a stick through my daughter's thumb.  My initial reaction was to start screaming too.  But amazingly, I held it together.  Maybe I'm getting better at this whole being a together, calm mom thing. Maybe.

It just so happened we were on the playground at Peyton's football practice and there was a medic.  So, I walked Lucy over to the trainer/medic with Wade and JT trailing behind us. She screamed the entire way.  "I can't feel my thumb!" "I can't feeeeeel my hand!" "Mommy!!!!" "Help me!"  "Am I going to die?"  

The trainer was ready for us since he had heard us coming from across the field.  It took two grown men and me to calm her down restrain her enough for her to show them her thumb.  The trainer/medic took one look at it and how Lucy was responding to the pain and suggested we go to the emergency room.  

On the 7-minute ride to the hospital, Lucy became even more hysterical.

"Camp told me God has plans for us, why would god plan this for me," Lucy shrieked.  "Why God?! Whyyyyyy!?"

"Mommy never leave me, never leave me," she repeated over and over and over.

"I'm going to remind you of this tomorrow when you are so annoyed with me," I quietly told her.  I couldn't resist.  

I watched as she went completely nuts.  So dramatic.  So loud.  So over the top.  So much like....me.  I will resist telling her that.  No one wants to hear the dreaded "you are just like me" kind of stuff, especially not from a mother.  I get it.  

One hour later.  She stopped screaming, continued to cry and call me mommy, asked if she was going to have to have her thumb amputated about 652 times and said she wished this night had never happened.

The nurses and physicians assistants were unbelievably amazing.  They joked with her, comforted her, talked to her not at her and helped tremendously.

Those nurses and physicians assistants, all six of them, surrounded Lucy as the doctor gave her shots to numb her thumb and pulled out the stick.

After the thumb was numb, Lucy told jokes and charmed the crowd that had gathered around her ER bed.

Five minutes later. We were leaving the hospital laughing, waving good-bye to our new friends.

"Mommy, I love you," she said quietly as we got back in the minivan as the brilliant September sun was setting.

"You were so brave," I lied to told her.  "Weren't all those people so nice."

"Yeah, and they thought I was so funny," she replied proudly.

Really? Biting my tongue to hold the "I get it sister, you need people to think you are funny and like you, even the people that are doing a kick-ass job at their job to take care of you and like you....because you are just like me."

Because yeah, we are a lot alike from our overdramatic "am I going to die" comments to the way our faces both turn all red and splotchy when we get scared, but there are differences.  She is her own little person with her own story to tell.  I will be there to understand how hurt she feels when people don't get her humor.  I won't judge her because she needs to bring a little drama to any/every situation.  I hope to teach her about things that were missing from my story early on, um, like coping skills. 

That beautiful September sun was shining a spotlight on Lucy earlier in the day at the bus stop.

"You have a good story for tomorrow, huh?," I said at bedtime.

"Can I exagerrate a little bit at school when I tell people?," Lucy asked.

"Just a little honey," I told her, but not saying "totally the same thing I would do."

I can't wait to see how Lucy lives and tells her very own story, I know that for sure this week and forever.

Here's what else I know for sure this week:

• I am going to miss summer.  Here's my love letter, er, video to summertime.

• I love the smell of coffee--anytime of the day or night.  It makes me happy.

• I can't stop raving about the light of the September sun...but c'mon, look at it.

• It is good to have friends that garden.  My garden never really got going (which isn't that shocking), but my dear friend dropped this basket of awesome from his garden off on my porch this weekend. Best tomatoes ever.

• School has started and the middle kids have the coolest bus stop in town.

Sure the kids are cute, but look at the next picture.

Some of the moms brought coffee and doughnuts on the second day of school.  Coffee!!!

• Wade has a sweet ride to preschool...my bike. I feel so happy to live in a town where I can ride my bike less than a mile to his preschool.

• It's football season and my boys are all happy.  We kicked off a new tradition, a family football game for Labor Day, and we had so much fun.

Wade wore his Incredibles costume for the big game.

What do you know for sure (this week)? C'mon, we're friends, share what you know. Leave a comment here or on the Facebook page.

  Please come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed.

All the pictures in this post were taken with my phone.

I'm linking up today with my friends Greta from  Gfunkified.com and Sarah from SundaySpill.com for the #iPPP link up.  They host a link up where they encourage people to share "your funny, your yummy, your heartfelt, your favorite photos of the week" from our phones. 

Check them out.