Waiting to Happen ...

Eli. My youngest. We have so many fond memories of this tough guy. He really is a tough guy. Eli turns 7 in May and I am hoping the 7th year of his life brings less trips to the ER. He is an accident waiting to happen. No, really. Let's just go over year 2008 and Eli.

He jumped off the pillar in the backyard onto the concrete .. yes, barefoot. He limped for over a month. A bruised heal. We were lucky that time... actually, he's never had a broken bone which shocks me. I have found him on top of the roof of the house. I have found him hanging from the top banister inside the house .. two stories up. I have caught him jumping from on top of the neighbor's fence onto the trampoline. After I very loudly informed him that was NOT a good idea .. he found another great trampoline stunt to preform. He shimmied up the pole on the net and jumped from the top of the pole onto the trampoline. Right. The net is up to protect him. The net eventually ended up tearing but then that served as a catapult. Needless to say, the net and poles are now gone. It's 'safer' that way. The trampoline is also now away from any fence or object that could be used as a 'base' to jump from.

Back to ER trips. He has had a fingernail completely ripped off. All I know about that incident was that there was a broom and a brother involved. I'll never forget the evening he casually carries on a conversation with me and in the middle says "oh yeah mom, this afternoon I swallowed a battery". WHAT?? So it turned out to be a nickel sized watch battery. But still. Another trip to the ER. The xray was pretty cool. There it was .. a white disk -a little battery right in the center of his stomach. Of course then came the news that I had two options. #1 - watch his bowel movements and go on a treasure hunt or #2 - take him back for another x-ray three days later. You can guess which option I chose.

I think the last ER visit we made was back in the fall. He came running inside holding his finger up to me yelling 'the snake bit me'. Sure enough, two perfectly spaced bite marks. The neighborhood kids found a snake in the grass. Of course, Eli was the one who was brave (sure, we'll use that word .. it sounds nicer than 'stupid') enough to bend down in the grass and reach out for it. Ouch. I got a look at the snake and even though the ER doc was upset that I didn't catch it and bring it in (YEAH RIGHT!) ... it didn't look poisonous to me. Some antibiotics and we were good to go.

We call him 'mr. destructo' .. be careful not to get in his way. You could put this kid in an empty room with three marbles and when you open the door - one marble would be missing, one eaten and the other broken. One afternoon his brother locked him out of the house to be funny (ha ha). Not to be outdone, Eli took a boulder and completely smashed the sliding glass door. I don't think I have ever seen that before. Obviously it was possible (yes, and expensive).

Yup, that's our Eli. Love this little guy to pieces but man can he do some damage.

Oh and this picture is from last week when he hit his eye on a desk at school. I didn't ask how the desk turned out.

All I can say is that I am grateful for Tricare. Sure has come in handy.