While we are on the subject...

A couple of weeks ago, our doorbell rang at midnight. You can imagine the panic that ensued. Turns out a dog had gotten loose and jumped up on our laying boxes, lifted up the hinged roof on our coop and gotten in with the chickens. Only one chicken initially died (another died about a week later from injuries from that night- we think). Now we still had 16 chickens at that time. Not all of them had names, but of course, that one did. It just happened to be Oliver's favorite- Ginger. I didn't tell the kids before school because there wasn't really enough time to mourn and still get to school on time. And I truly hoped that Oliver would just think one of the other chickens was Ginger.

Not a chance! As soon as he got home from school, he ran to the coop and I could hear him say, "Ginger? Nope- not out here. She must be laying an egg," as he searched the house. I explained to him what happened and attempted to comfort him. We went inside, where Tyler tried to help as well. We were sitting in the front room, focusing all of our attention on Oliver when we heard a thump down the front stairs and a scream. Tyler ran down to Tucker and yelled up the dreaded words, "Can you bring me a diaper?" That's always Tyler's code for "there's a lot of blood and I don't want you to see this."

I guess Tucker tried to climb down the stairs with both blankets- "Deet," and "Blue" and got them tangled around his legs. Tyler ran him down the street to InstaCare to have it checked out. By this time it was about nap time and his being tired and a bit traumatized by the experience made him a little subdued, I guess. Anyway, for what ever reason- they were concerned that he wasn't acting "like a two year old should." Tyler had to go to work, so I took Tucker up to Primary Children's Hospital. They quickly established that he was just fine. Maybe due to the fact that he was running around in the waiting room yelling, "I wike this! I wike this!" (I like this!) It was decorated with murals, there were fish and other fun things for kids. They quickly gave him 3 staples and we were off.

I used to wonder why my kids were so accident prone. Savannah had her first stitches at 18 months and broke her arm and Emmaline's had stitches about 9 times now, I think. In the past couple of years I've certainly had my share of crazy accidents as well (cutting off my finger in the disposal, dropping the seat in the van on my foot... to name just a couple). Guess I'm just a late bloomer.