How the Urgent Care became Mitchell's BFF

It was a regular Sunday, and we were at my mothers.  Mitchell decided it'd be totally awesome to run super fast in the very dark basement, and try to jump (and land, presumably) on the love sac, which was right up against the huge dresser.

Needless to say, it didn't end well.

The child has a huge dime-size GASH that was at least 1/4" deep. I don't even think I'm exaggerating.  I swear I almost saw his skull.

So we swooped him up with no coat or shoes and drove over to the urgent care that was *not* 24/7, but we were close enough.  The "open" sign was flipped off, but technically we had 4 mins before they  officially closed and they (thank goodness) took pity on us.

So they give Mitchell a numbing shot in 4 different places around the gash, and the shot was forever long.  Mitchell didn't even wince! It's apparent he does not have his mother's wimpy no-pain-tolerance-what-so-ever genes (brain?) so… that's good.  And then they stitched him up and said, "you're doing so much better than 99% of adults" Mitchell said nothing.  His face was covered with a sterilized sheet so I said, "Are you good, Mitchell?" And he said, "Yeah.  I'm fine.  THIS IS FUN!"

oh, okay.

The doctor gave him a mirror so he could look at his stitches, and he just loved it.  "Tomorrow at school I can tell my friends?!" Yes, boy, you can.

5 days later we went back to the instacare for the removal of the stitches, this time I had Ali hanging out with me.  Who would not sit still because she wanted to get closer and watch the whole thing.  After they were done, I said, "okay, say 'bye!' Mitchell" and Ali answered for him (as always), "BYE!!! Thanks for fixing Mitchell, my brother!"

She's the best little sister to the best big brother. It's so fun watching them grow up together.

Then, you know, valentines day.  This year I asked Mitchell what he wanted to give to his class, "Pencils!" "Really, no candy?" "No.  My friends *love* pencils"

Obviously, this warranted a trip to target- and we bought lots of cute pencils (I love target pencils, they're so cute.  It's starting to become an addiction.)

It takes me less than 5 seconds to come up with incredibly corny puns (perfect for valentines day!) So we made a bunch of "You're all 'write' valentine" hearts to tape to the pencils.

Mitchell's the best brother ever, and promptly shared exactly half of all his valentines with Ali, who by now expects this treatment regardless of anything he brings home.  Adorable. And next year, Mitchell wants to give candy, "that's my favorite!" he realized.

Ali lost her Jessica/BFF/child/doll last November-ish.  "Where is Jessica?" she sobbed one night.  I said I'd look for her and bring her to her, and I looked *everywhere* and could not find her.  2 days of Ali crying "Jessica is so cold.  She's outside! She needs me" (cue me in boots, in the snow, walking all over the yard, kicking snow around trying to un-bury Jessica) and also  "Jessica doesn't love me anymore!" I bought the dang doll and paid the 1 trillion dollars to get her here the next day (okay, okay, that part was my mom).  

But the doll finally comes and "OH LOOK! JESSICA HAS A NEW OUTFIT AND EVERYTHING IS FINE!"  

She bought it. She didn't even question it.  She yelled at Jessica, "Don't EVER leave again!" and it took about 4 weeks for her to comfortably leave Jessica's sight for short moments of time.

SO.  My children are playing outside.  Do you see where this is going? Yeah.  They found Jessica.  IN THE BARBEQUE.  I can't.  I can't even handle this.  Ali is so happy.  Old-Jessica is nasty, covered in soot, and is now called "Kiki" (Note: just so everyone is clear, I did *clean* the doll. She's not nasty anymore)

Ali doesn't have any recollection and she's not connecting any dots whatsoever (or she has amazing coping mechanisms, which is totally likely.  I have visibly seen her stop her own meltdowns).

But now "Kiki" is pretty much rejected by Ali, and has been forced upon Mitchell to adopt. Mitchell's usually okay with this, except he doesn't want to sleep with dolls.  I tucked Ali into bed tonight and went to go find Jessica (it's just part of the nightly routine. I figure I get more exercise running up and down all the stairs multiple times for both children).   I found Kiki/Old-Jessica first, so I tried to pass her off as Jessica (after all, they're THE SAME DOLL) and Ali wanted nothing to do with it.  She started crying "No, mom! Jessica! MY Jessica! She needs me!" luckily, Jessica 2.0 was just where she remembered leaving her, and after Kiki was rejected by Mitchell, I convinced Ali to let her sleep in her bed.

The whole thing is confusing for all of us.

I have nothing else to say except show you this picture:

This is her 3rd stalk.  Kid loves veggies.  It's super weird (and super awesome!)