1st's

Gavin has experienced a few firsts this last week. Some good, some bad. We will start with the good. He finally lost his first tooth. The thing has been wiggly for about 2 weeks and was just barely hanging on in the end. He was very excited to put it under his pillow and super excited to find a dollar in it's place the next morning. He also has enjoyed sticking his tongue out the hole where his tooth used to be.

On to the bad. We got out first visit to the ER for stitches. I am personally amazed that we haven't been there before with our boys, especially Gavin. We don't call him monkey just for fun. He is really is a climbing freak of nature. I remember him climbing up the shelves in the pantry and the toy closet. Lately he has moved on to any tree, pole, swing set, or monkey bars he can get to.

We went to the zoo on Labor Day with our great friends the Taylor's (of the Burke & Kristie variety) after about an hour we stopped for lunch. We were close to the primate (monkeys) building with the lion drinking fountain. The kids had finished lunch and were playing down there while we loaded everything up. As we were walking down the hill, I looked over by the drinking fountain and could see Gavin screaming and blood running down one side of his face. I started running toward him, telling myself that head wounds bleed more. It was a blur after that. Josh grabbed him and held his hand to his head, there were so many people around and Kristie just kept handing me wipes so we could try to clean him off. The zoo security was there trying to get the crowd away from us and my other kids were standing there in shock. Molly kept saying "Gavin has an owie". When we lifted off the wipes (they were probably stinging)to put on a piece of gauze, I just about died when I saw the gaping hole in his forehead. The security guy recommended stitches (well, duh!) and off to Primary Children's we went. Kristie and Burke willingly kept Owen and Molly with them at the zoo while we went to the hospital, THANK YOU!!!!

Josh was on photo duty at the hospital. The first picture was before the doctor even saw him, the second one is right before they sewed him up. The white part in the middle of the wound is his skull. There is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain and knowing there is nothing you can do. I am so grateful we only had to go to Primary Children's for stitches, and not every day or week because my child is sick.

9 stitches, many tears (from me as well), and 3 1/2 hours later, we were back at the zoo, Gavin's choice. We rode the carousel, saw the babies of the zoo: giraffe, snow leopard, tigers and some monkey (I can't remember the name), and went wherever Gavin wanted (including McDonald's on the way home!).

I think our little FrankenMonkey was excited to show off his stitches at school today, and hopefully he will stay off the monkey bars at recess!