Felling, Falling, and Moving On

As part of our yard makeover/drainage effort, we had a tree to remove in our neighbor's yard that was in the way (they hated it anyway). The boys were talking about climbing up into the tree to lop off branches before felling it, but then thought better of it and decided to try Larry's winch to see if they could get it to fall where they wanted without all the extra hassle. Any occasion to use the winch, really... Grandpa Jack is the master tree feller (and that's not slang for "fellow..."); with a few well-placed notches and cuts (and a little tugging from Larry's winch, of course), the tree fell exactly where they wanted it to.



Then Larry and Grandpa made short-work of limbing and slicing rounds; the whole thing was down and cut-up in half an hour.


Larry's machismo close-up


Grandpa Jack


Daddy helping Hylton handle the splitting maul.


As I stood here with the camera, I watched with affection as Hylton slowly backed up (keeping an eye on both Papas) until he was just in line with the big guys.


He even has his big-boy work gloves on. During the clean-up that lasted quite a bit longer than the cutting, our neighbor, Dave, kept commenting on what a big helper Hylton was. He unfailingly carried branches into the trailer (big ones, even) and helped sweep the street until they were all done, while the other two, bigger kiddos rolled around on Dave's hand-truck/dolly like a motor-less go-kart up and down the street.


Yeah.... he couldn't split it... But it makes a cool action shot!
Paul Bunyan (Larry) finally stepped in and split the rounds in one fell swoop. ...It's how legends are born...


Sterling emerged from playing to present his axe (hand cultivator) for duty.


With no hedge and no tree, it really opens things up.


Later this day (Saturday), Evie and her cousins were in a wagon being pulled by Sterling down the street, he tried to make a sharp turn and flipped the wagon, dumping the kiddos in the street and Evie teeth-first onto the adjacent curb. She immediately had blood pooling out of her mouth and down her chin- it was appalling. As Brandy handed her off to me, and I carried her to the house, I could already see that her teeth had been shoved up into her gums, but whether they were even still intact we couldn't tell until we cleaned her up a bit. Doug took her to the ER, which of course there was nothing they could do because they don't keep a dentist on staff at St V's. So she came home and went to bed and Doug was able to get her into the pediatric dentist for an emergency check-up on Sunday morning. The dentist gave her some antibiotics and a follow-up appointment in two weeks, but even he can't do much until we find out if the teeth will reattach or die. Her two top front teeth are impacted about 1/3 of the way up into her gums, luckily in such a way that it didn't damage permanent teeth behind them, and of the two side teeth, one is impacted as well as loose and the other one is chipped.


I didn't want to gross anyone out by revealing too much of her bruised gums, but you can see that very little of her two front teeth are showing. She also has a pretty fat lip and road-rash on her chin and knees. But really, I'm just so grateful that it wasn't worse! And I think Evie was such a good sport. She cried quite a lot initially, from fear and pain and shock, but Doug said she had quit crying before he got her to the hospital, despite the lingering pain. Since then, there has been no crying or whining- even when being examined by big, scary doctors, or during X-rays, or during the tedious teeth-brushing routine we have to submit her to. I've heard it said that there's a silver lining to every cloud, and this time our silver lining is that she hasn't been able to suck her thumb in three days due to the injuries. She is certainly our most vigorous thumb-sucker and how to get her to stop was eluding me. Now it just may happen on it's own!


We don't get a lot of pictures of top-teeth with Evie; she's more of a bottom tooth smiler, but here is her birthday picture from last year. I think it helps to see the difference.


This is Monday morning before Sterling's Kindergarten Graduation


Dad (one of the school Watch Dog's- a Dad volunteer program) is going with Sterling to school to help out for a bit. I love that Hylton is having a baby-meltdown in the corner...


Sterling with his classmates


Waiting to go up on stage to get his diploma- Sterling wants to be a Kindergarten teacher when he grows up.


Sterling and Mrs. Lentz


Sterling, the K Grad, and Evie, the soon-to-be K'er, in the Kindergarten classroom. They both look so grown-up! ...Well, all except for Bun-Bun...






Full-day Kindergarten was so wonderful this year. Despite my worries over the summer about it, I think it was the best thing for Sterling. He loves to be social and he was resisting learning to read (and still gets frustrated about it, probably because video games are more exciting), but he has grown and learned so much in a few short months. We're so proud of him!