Waiting…

so may as well spend some time catching up here 😉

Monday was quiet, with lots of nothing much (although K has now reached level 4 stage 10 of BBC dance mat typing 🙂 ) until E arrived for a sleepover 😀 This served the double purpose of making my children and E very happy and saving her from a horribly early start and then a day in hospital waiting for her brother to have surgery. A video bribe got them all snuggled into bed on time, but then they chatted a bit too long and too loudly and we ended up putting L into our bed to break up the party a bit. Having saved E from an early start, I think she got one anyway, as I heard voices before 6 and they were all well and truly up by 7. Ho hum. Tuesday was correspondingly a rather touchy kind of day, although I think they all had fun anyway. We got to swimming in plenty of time, only to find that there was no teacher. The lifeguards looked at one another for a few minutes, wandered round the building a couple of times, asked us if we were expecting Fiona (err, no, it hasn’t been her for a while, but recently it keeps changing) and then finally one of them announced that he was Ben, he was also a teacher and he proposed to do the lesson, if that was alright with us. It was, so he did. We looked at the time and decided to split what was available between the two classes, so the first one would start late and finish not quite so late and the second start late and finish on time, but both would miss out a little. He dropped the pool depth (last week it was stupidly shallow) and asked the kids to slide into the water to check it was okay, which it was. Then he took one look at how small most of them were and jumped in himself, shorts, tee-shirt and all 😀 I couldn’t help this week, as I had A tied to my chest, but I stayed at the edge and called encouragements, which seemed to help a bit, if only by telling him their names 😉 Ben proved to be great, actually. He chivvied them just enough, splashing the ones who were being precious about getting wet and helping the ones who were falling behind in a way which made it fun rather than humiliating. I do think for children this little and inexperienced a teacher in the water is the way to go. A helping adult in the water as well is even better – if Vix can’t do it regularly then perhaps I need to find an Anna sitter…
No news from J’s parents so we brought E back with us and had lunch, then watched a video (Cheaper by the Dozen) as everyone was flagging a bit. Halfway through the video E and L started to do somersaults on, off and over the settee, so I guess they still had some energy! Then we replaced the trampoline bungee, played in the sandpit, rearranged the climbing frame, pulled weeds out of the patio and generally pottered in the garden until Bob got home and ‘s dad came to pick her up. At which point we fed the kids and bundled them into bed early, hoping for a less crabby day today 😉
The morning went by in a whoosh of nothing much (again), then we picked up a parcel (assorted French resources and a Junior Scrabble game 🙂 ) and went to a nearby town for a HE trip to a fire station. There was to have been a meet at a park first, but since it was raining nobody was there and we spent the time looking for a mobile phone accessories shop instead, trying and failing to find a replacement charger for my phone (it might be useful for KH trip on Friday to have a phone I can use!) and eating lunch on the hoof. When we got to the fire station there seemed to be rather few of us and we had to ask the fireman who was waiting to start the talk to wait a bit longer, as we were sure there should be more people. We were just about to give up and start anyway when they arrived – having been at someone’s house in the next street they were bound to all be later than those of us who had come further 😉 Will try to get the boys to help me write about the tour. It was fun and we have photos 😀 The high point for the children was the very end, when they uncurled a hose and let the children all have a go at squirting it. Of course they all got soaked, but they had a great time!
Everything finished just about in time for us to throw damp children into the car and rush back for gymnastics, which brings us back to the title. J and K did the warm-ups and about half of the activities, then J fell on his elbow (embarrassingly out of a soft play barrel, not off the p-bars or anything exciting like that) and ended up in the office with ice on it while the manager came to fetch me. He was desperately upset, not helped by being so tired to start with, and it was very hard to see whether he was really in as much pain as he appeared to be iyswim. He fell on the outside of the joint, but the pain and swelling were on the inside. Fingers all working fine and able to grip, but lots of pain and whingeing if asked to lift arm at all 😕 We decided to come home as soon as K’s session over, keeping it iced in the meantime (only 5 minutes or so anyway) and then see whether we needed to drop off excess children and go to A&E or to leave it and see. He should have been at Cubs for investiture this evening so not a happy bunny 🙁 Got home to find Bob had cooked tea and J was hungry so we ate tea and then had another look at the elbow. Much more swollen now 😕 Strapped it for him (with a strip of hemp terry bought for nappy making as the bandages got absorbed into some dressing up a while ago and haven’t been replaced 😳 ) which he said helped, and then decided it was better to get him to A&E now and be sure, rather than wait and possibly have to miss out on going to KH. They left over 2 hours ago and I’ve not heard anything…

Oh joy. It’s a probable broken elbow 🙁 He has a cuff and collar for now and the earliest appointment available for fracture clinic is Friday morning…