our first (and hopefully last) trip to the E.R.

So we were having a lovely day yesterday, and had just finished picking up some fresh veggies for the dinner I had been planning when something went disasterously wrong. Elijah was climbing into his carseat (at his insistence) and I was helping him get his arms into the straps when he suddenly began to cry. He tends to be extra whiny lately, and he stopped crying pretty quickly, so I didn't really think anything of it, but when we got out of the car, he was crying again and his left arm was completely limp.

Luckily (or perhaps not so luckily) A friend was just telling me that a similar thing recently happened with her son. I called her just to confirm that we did indeed need to go to the hospital, and the answer was yes.

The diagnosis was "nursemaid's elbow", essentially a slight dislocation right at the elbow joint. Ouch!

We were at the hospital for about two and a half hours. Two hours and 25 minutes were spent waiting. The doctor came into the room, looked at his arm, gently twisted it to pop the bones back together, and gave both kids popsicles. Apparently there are no long term effects of having this problem, as he was using his left arm again within seconds. I can't wait to see the bill for 5 minutes of work.

We have to be very careful about pulling on his arm from now on because apparently once this happens, it's more likely to recur. This will be challenging because the twins pull on one another *all the time*. It also means no monkey bars... a new skill that the twins love to practice.

I had wanted to reward Elijah for his bravery and Izzie for her patience by getting them each a cupcake from this bakery, conveniently located across the street from the hospital. Alas, by the time we were discharged, the place was closed.