So last year, around this time, we made a trip to the Emergency Room with Em because she drank too much of that yummy grape cough syrup... and then two weeks later, Mommy ended up at the Doc-in-a-Box with a broken foot.

Em decided to combine the two traditions into one this year.

Now, before you freak out, it looks way worse than it actually is. The kiddo is coping very, very well. It's a really big cast for a small injury.

Friday evening, the gang and I were at Walmart and Em was being super helpful and cooperative... until it came time for us to leave the store. She wasn't following directions and holding my hand in the parking lot, so I scooped her into the cart and let her ride in the back (the front seat being taken up by little bro).

While I unloaded Atticus into the car, Em decided to try climb out of the back of the cart on her own, and the cart began to roll a little bit. I turn to her just as she's tipping out.

Of course I'm frantically trying to grab her, but I'm not so lithe or quick on my feet these days, so she fell out and caught herself (apparently mostly on her right elbow). :(

(Meanwhile, old gross smoking dude pulls up in the spot next to us and makes obnoxious comments about how Em "sure doesn't look happy" as he stands there and puffs, apparently oblivious to the fact that standing within arm's reach of a stressed out and upset preggo woman is probably not a good idea. Fortunately for him, I bit my tongue and just say in a tight voice, "No, sir. She isn't.")

I wasn't really sure what was wrong with her until that night when we tried to put on p.j.s and she cried when she bent her arm to put it into the sleeve... we went to her dr. on Saturday and they took x-rays (which she was a real champ about, considering that her mommy couldn't go into the x-ray room with her) and her doc said it looked like a small fracture right above her elbow.

She's been really tough about the whole thing and hardly complaining at all. As a matter of fact, I kind of doubted the diagnosis on Sunday afternoon when she was jumping on the bed and landing on her arm without wincing at all.

However, after the orthopedic pediatrician saw her and confirmed the diagnosis yesterday, they decided to go ahead and cast her for the next 3 weeks.

So here's to sponge baths with a 2 1/2 year old (the same one who has been advised by her physician to not "jump around and run") for the next 3 weeks.
(**P.S. Just to clarify, in case anyone reads my tongue-in-cheek telling of the account as being insensitive or making light of it all... sometimes in life, you gotta laugh to keep from crying. I'm choosing to look at the humorous side of things. I really do feel horrible that my baby got hurt, especially while I was right there. Sometimes things can get misinterpreted on the internet, so I just wanted to make sure that was clear!)