Friday night turned out to be a lot more than we had bargained for this weekend. While our family was planning a movie date and some pasta for dinner, it ended with a trip to the hospital for our little guy.

It all started in the afternoon, trying to get out the door to pick up an order from my favorite bird store. Harrison ran off down the hall, refusing to put on his shoes and jacket. When I walked into our bedroom, he rolled his ankle slightly over a blanket that was laying on the floor. He kind of winced, and said it hurt, and I shrugged it off and told him we needed to get going so we could get home for nap.

He winced again, which was odd for him. I’ve seen him take many bad falls. Run into furniture and walls, and bounce back without so much as an “Ouch.” I asked him where it hurt, and he pointed to his toes. I asked him to move his toes, which he did with no problem. I figured again that he just would walk off the pain. Maybe at the worst, he had bruised something.

Fast forward the rest of the day, he got up from nap, and was limping. Which was odd, but again, I checked his toes and asked him if he hurt. Same response. In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, I knew we should be staying away from hospitals and doctor’s offices unless it was an absolute emergency. And this still didn’t seem like an emergency to me.

Our poor little guy ate his afternoon snack, and when Nathan came home, after seeing him limp when he walked, made the {now, very smart} suggestion to take him in to get an X-ray.

Given the worldwide health crisis, I {very} reluctantly stayed behind, hoping to not expose myself, 21 weeks pregnant, to any virus that may be lurking. And my boys went off to the urgent care for an X-ray. While I waited for word on what was happening, I got pictures of our sweet little boy hamming it up with the doctors and nurses.

One X-ray in. The doctor thought it looked like there could be a break. They were going to take a second one. The second one confirmed, a break in his leg. He was going to be transferred to the children’s hospital to have a cast put on.

And that’s when the mom guilt set in. And all of the pregnancy hormones of not being able to be there with my baby. While I cried to my mom, my sister, my mother-in-law, this little guy got his first cast put on his leg. He chose his favorite color, “geen.” And he’s been mostly all smiles since.

He’s learning yet another new normal, learning how to walk and balance with his new cast. He’ll only have it for 30 days, hopefully, if everything heals well. We can’t decide if it’s a blessing or if this has made it much harder that our county in KS has just mandated a 30 day stay at home quarantine starting next week, that will coincide almost exactly with Harrison’s broken leg.

He’s a bit sad that Dad keeps turning down playing soccer with him now. But he has found that his cast makes some really cool loud noises banging against the side of his crib. Hoping that these 30 days will pass quickly, and that we will find lots of joy in the solitude of being at home as a family.

If you have any good recommendations of how to get an active toddler in a cast some physical activity during this time, we’d love to hear!