Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Time for stringing lights and stitches?!

2 noteworthy things happened last week:  we decorated our house for Christmas and Cullen Robert Swanson got his second head laceration requiring stitches.  I will start first with the stringing of the lights.  We are big fans of getting a "real" tree.  We opted out of the tree farm experience this year as the kids are still so young and it just seemed like a lot of work.  Therefore, in the dark of night (7 pm), Cullen and Dirk set out to the lot next to the Kwik Trip gas station to pick out a tree.  When they got it home, Dirk and I noticed that it didn't look very symmetrical, but agreed it would be fine once the branches dropped.  After 24 hours, the tree didn't look any better.  We decided that every tree needs a little love (even the not-so-pretty ones).  We couldn't be happier with our Charlie Brown Christmas tree and realize that's what you get when you allow a three-year-old to pick out the tree at the lot next to the gas station in the dark! 

Now onto the stitches....  Cullen was playing outside on the playground equipment at the YMCA daycare.  There is a tire in the climbing wall, and Cullen hit his forehead just right on the frozen tire and suffered a pretty deep gash.  By the time I got to him, his teacher had stopped the bleeding; she gave Cullen a Popsicle; and we were off the the ER.  Cullen wasn't crying when I saw him, but he had a scared look on his face.  Once we got to the ER, his first question to the nurse was "are you going to give me a shot?"  (He is obviously traumatized from our flu shots earlier this fall.)  She told him "No" and he was at ease.   Dirk met us in the ER shortly after arrival and his first words were "this kid is going to look like a prize fighter!"  They put some numbing gel on the cut and then a very nice doctor came in and stitched him up.  Three stitches to be precise.  Cullen never even cried.  I think it may have been the promise of  lunch at "Old McDonald's" that helped him stay so calm.  After five days, he got those stitches out and he's looking a lot better. 

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