Update on the arm

Josiah had another follow-up doctor's visit on Tuesday afternoon, the final one that we'll have here in England. Everything is healing up well, and the only frustrating part is that the particular doctor we saw still didn't want him in a full cast. This means his arm is still only supported by a plaster backslab, with surrounding padding and bandaging from armpit to knuckles. I'd definitely prefer the more bulletproof full cast. He's only 4, and we can't keep him entirely from running and playing around (he LOVES to run), yet a fall at this point could be dangerous. It's also easy for other people to knock into him, especially other children when we're out and about at kids' attractions. Ah well. We're doing our best to keep him safe without smothering him.

For those who are medically curious, here's the x-ray from the day Josiah fell. Yikes. You can see a triangle piece just above the elbow fully separated from rest of the bone that's hanging down. No wonder it was a nearly 2-hour surgery to set and pin. And on that note, I didn't realize that the pins were poking out of his body. I was with him on Tuesday when they removed the bandaging for the first time. It was gruesome! The surgical wound hadn't been cleaned or dressed in two weeks, his arm looked weird, hardware was sticking out, Josiah began screaming with pain again as they worked on stitches – yep, I ended up lying on the ground on the brink of blacking out! :) How embarrassing. The only good part about that was I could then distract Josiah by pointing out how much braver he was than me, telling him he'd better not tell Daddy that Mommy had to lie down on the floor, etc.! He was giggling again in pretty short order.

England 3: Corfe Castle

On our first Saturday, we had one of the best days of our vacation – at Corfe Castle, with Danni, Adam, Grace, and Olivia. The sun shone, the air was cool and clear, and the scenery was just beautiful. I'm pretty sure that it's been rainy every time I've been to Corfe in the past two decades, so it was wonderful to actually spend the day there, get out on the grounds, and climb the ruins. Corfe Castle was begun by William the Conqueror sometime after his arrival into England in 1066. For several hundred years, it was a mighty fortress and castle with its prominent setting high on the steep hill. Later, it became a fine residence, and in the 1630s it was purchased by the powerful Bankes family. Alas, in a story of death and betrayal coupled with great bravery on the part of the lady of the castle, it was destroyed barely a decade later in the English Civil War. The amazing ruin today has cast its shadow over the village below for nearly 350 years, with much of the tumbled stone from the ruin incorporated into the residences below. 

We started out day on the grounds just below the castle, enjoying the available activities and then eating a picnic lunch. 

What do you think? Does 14th century garb suit us?

 Beautiful countryside in a valley below.

And the view from another angle, looking back toward the town of Corfe Castle. 

We didn't know it ahead of time, but "Jigsaw the Jester" was doing fun shows at Corfe Castle each Saturday in August. The kids loved it! 

 

Clambering around the ruins. 

William didn't get to see much of the castle itself!

After the picnic, he conked out in the stroller for a nice nap. 

In the afternoon, there was a "learn to be a jester" session with juggling balls and batons, ribbons, and all sorts of other fun equipment. Jigsaw gave Josiah a few lessons on one-armed tricks!

Jesse shows off his impressive plate-spinning skills....

...but Olivia proves it's mere child's play! 

 Leaving the castle behind wasn't so hard with the promise of ice cream down in the village below.

And to top off our lovely day in Corfe Castle, we spied the steam train in the gaps between houses as we headed out. We snapped this picture out of the window as we drove past! 

We then headed back to Danni and Adam's for a reeeally delicious Indian take-away supper, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the night ended with a Casler-Grady production. Grace (5), Josiah (4), and Libby (3) put on a wonderful puppet show for us. The story line was dark and cautionary, involving a decidedly ungracious fairy (who wouldn't share her bath) and an ill-fated group of woodland animals (named Benny, Lenny, Jenny, and so on) who gave their lives one after another in pursuit of bath time justice. The puppeteers brilliantly lightened their potentially sombre tale with the addition of many comedic techniques that kept the audience in stitches. (We have it on video so at some point, with better bandwidth, I'll have to get it posted. It's a massive file...)

England 2: Getting Underway

Given that Josiah was in a fair bit of pain to start and still recovering from surgery, we didn't try to do much of anything on Wednesday or Thursday other than visit with family. It was nice to take it easy for a few days, and happily, Josiah could hardly have had a better place in which to recuperate! Ann sewed up some super cute slings for him, brilliantly tailored several shirts so they could get on and off his thickly bandaged arm, and found the perfect chocolate "Mr. Bump" as a special gift (which he still hasn't eaten, because he loves it so much!). No surprise, it didn't take too long for Josiah to start perking up. By Thursday evening, we ventured out for a little walk down in Wimborne after supper, and on Friday we enjoyed several hours at the model village with Ann, Grace, and Olivia. The week disappeared without much proper holiday making...but all things considered, we were happy that our vacation was able to get underway as quickly as it did.

 Josiah with his prized "Mr. Bump" chocolate. The white chocolate bandages are hilarious! 

On our Thursday evening walk, throwing leaves, flowers, and sticks into the water below.

At the Wimborne Model Village on Friday. In addition to the wonderful model town layout (which I remember so fondly from my own childhood, and which depicts Wimborne much as it was when my Mom was a child), they now have some play areas, a Thomas train layout, and little Wendy houses. Josiah, Grace (center) and Olivia had fun building a small house within this particular house here! 

Posing near the village. 

William, as usual, was more interested in sticks and rocks than the attraction itself. We had thought he might enjoy peering into all of the little windows to see the miniature layouts and shop fronts...  Ah well!

Later that afternoon, a big teddy bear picnic was arranged in the back garden. Fun! 

Because Josiah's teddies and William's ellie had to go through the wash, they observed the picnic from the drying line, with their picnic food clipped to their paws. Fortunately, the animals were quite satisfied with this arrangement. 

Friday evening, we went to my cousin Danni's house, where she and Adam put on a wonderful cookout with all five of my English cousins plus various significant others. I wish we could have spent more time just visiting with everyone evening, but the boys required a fair bit of attention. Even so, it was great!

England 1: Departures and Arrivals

I have been terribly remiss this summer in keeping the blog up to date. Life is always so full! Perhaps I'll go back at some point and do a June and July retrospective. At present, though, I'm hoping to getting up some documentation of our current travels in England... 

Hard to believe, but it's been 3+ years since our last visit here to southern England, where Mom grew up and where her family still resides. We drove to Newark, NJ on Monday, August 1 and in due time arrived in London's Heathrow airport, Tuesday morning. The boys were absolutely perfect for the hours and hours of driving...waiting...flying...more waiting...more driving... Jesse was capable as ever in immediately piloting our rented 5-speed little Fiat Punto (on practically no sleep) through the highways, byways, and roundabouts from the airport to Colehill in Dorset.

Josiah loved every minute of the journey!

We had been pretty concerned about how the travel would go with the boys, especially for William -- who's prone to ugly fits and anger at times. We were definitely relieved to make the journey safely and happily! What we didn't expect was what happened next. Within two hours of arriving at Colin and Ann's, Josiah took a nasty fall off of a bike. Ann whisked Jesse and Josiah to Poole Hospital, and soon he underwent a nearly 2-hour surgery to have the upper bone in his right arm set and wires inserted; a triangle shaped piece of bone near the elbow basically came off. It was a bad break.

I was anxiously waiting at home for about 18 hours with only one quick call from Jesse when Josiah first went into surgery on Tuesday evening. By all accounts, though, Josiah was a real trooper once he got some morphine to kill the pain. Apparently he was asked by a few nurses, "Are all the chaps in America as brave as you?" :) He was kept in hospital until early Wednesday afternoon.

It definitely was a rough start to our trip, but we felt so blessed that Josiah got wonderful care, that we're staying with gracious family and could take it easy for a few days, and that our vacation here was scheduled to be two and a half weeks long, meaning that a few bad days weren't going to spoil the entire trip.

William and I had a lot of quality time together while we waited for word from Daddy about big brother. 

My first glimpse of my brave boy in hospital on Wednesday at discharge time. He was pretty wobbly for a day or so, but a new teddy from the hospital staff did him a world of good! 

Even trains didn't do much to pick him up when we first got home...