I Think I May Have Forgotten To Mention . . .

that Sebastian broke his arm. He did it on December 1st, deciding I suppose, that getting a dead tree in one's Playmobil advent calendar wasn't enough excitement. It happened at recess at preschool when he (according to reports) slid down the slide and jumped off the side before he got to the bottom. They tried to reach me, but my cell phone wasn't nearly loud enough to hear over the din in the toy aisle at Target, so they called Rob just as he was finished teaching (his office is in the same building as the preschool). They'd had someone look at it who said it wasn't broken, so I stupidly believed them even though Sebi was really in pain.
Then I called our neighbor who is an ER doctor, and he graciously and generously hopped on his bicycle and made a house call since we had two sleeping boys. He was so good with Sebi. But he said it needed an X-ray, which was the conclusion I was coming to as well. We packed a bag full of treats and iPods and blanket and went to the ER. Rob took over and I brought the baby home, and he stayed for X-rays and then calling the orthopedic surgeon, who happened to be another neighbor of ours. Sebi got the so-called date rape drug which makes you stick your tongue out a lot and forget everything that's happened. He got it so they could set his arm (in case that wasn't clear) and then wrapped up his arm in an ace bandage around a funky solidifies-when-wet cast (uncle Jeff was disappointed that they days of cast artwork are over). The break was at the very bottom of his humerus, which is probably why it wasn't detected earlier.

We went to the orthpedic surgeon's office a few times, cut off some sleeves and wore a lot of Will's shirts (Will was very magnanimous, especially since we mostly used his church wear). Three weeks later the cast came off. Sebastian was disturbed by the flaky skin and his atrophied, lumpy muscle. But we lured him out into the snow where he forgot to baby his arm, and he was back to normal in less than 24 hours.
This makes Sebi our most daring child, now having had stitches in his chin, and a broken elbow. (I realize that this is all relative, but we're a pretty cautious, sedentary group.)
It was a blessing that the boys' matching Christmas outfits, which were never worn all together during December because of the cast, can still squeak by in January.