quality time is dangerous in our family

Today was to be the first example of our new family program, in which either Niek or I spends a half day solely with one of our children. They’re getting older so fast, that I wanted to institute some one-on-one time to foster good relations with them in preparation for adolescence and all the sort of scary stuff like that that’s looming in our future. So Niek took Nicky to the pool – which is so incredibly close to our house that it’s laughable – and I took the other three kids downtown to continue our explorations of Gouda’s history. And this is how our day turned out. (“My” three are still intact, btw.)

As near as I can figure from the Dutch terms, it’s a green stick fracture; so it could be a lot worse. But it’s bad enough. For 8 days he cannot put any weight at all at any time on this foot. He can’t even go to the bathroom. Nothing. His foot needs to be elevated nearly all the time. Then we’ll have more X-rays done and they’ll decide if he gets a walking cast or has to remain completely off the foot. They refused to give any indication at all of a timeline.

How’d it happen? Niek let Nicky ride on the baggage rack on the back of his bike and Nicky’s foot became entangled in the spokes of the bike’s rear wheel. I almost threw up when Niek carried him after it happened. So for anyone out there thinking it would save a little bit of time to put a young child on the back of the bike rather than putting him or her properly into a child seat … remember this.