Kids Triathlon 2015 (And Kylee sleeps at the hospital)

I signed all my kids up for the kids triathlon only a week before the event.  I was kind of nervous something might come up and we would miss it.  Within a couple of hours, Sadie stumbled back onto the lid of the fire pit outside and got some pretty good burns on he hands.  They blistered up angrily and she was in a lot of pain. 

Apparently she got burned on her leg/bum too but her hand was so painful she didn’t even mention those burns.  It was a really sad time, but I was sitting there thinking, “she’s not going to do the triathlon now, is she.”  But luckily they healed up well and she was fine by the next weekend.

Sadie was a little nervous and was telling me that she didn’t want to do the race.  I told her she didn’t have to, but that it’s fun and the other kids told her how much fun they had.  By the next day she was ready to do it.

All seemed to be going well until Kylee started complaining of her eye itching and hurting really bad.  The next morning she woke up with it swollen pretty good.  We let it be for a day, but when she woke up the next day with it even worse I decided to take her in.  Dr Pettit examined her and said it didn’t look like a stye, though that was a possibility.  But that he wanted to treat it with a strong shot of antibiotics and see her again the next day to see how it responded.  So she got a shot in her leg of Rocephin and we went home.  The swelling seemed to be going down by that night – we had the father-daughter activity for Activity Days and we went and she had a good time.  But the next morning it woke up even worse still.  We went to our follow-up appointment that afternoon- this was Friday by now.  And Dr Pettit was concerned.  He expected it to respond much more to the shot.  He decided that, in order to be safe, she should be admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics and have a CT scan done to check and see if the infection was back behind her eye and close to her brain.  He said he’d seen that before.  I thought it was crazy that a little swollen eye would require a night in the hospital.  But that’s what we did.  I took her while Ryan stayed with the other kids.  We stopped to see the picture of her since it's not often we are in the hospital to see it.  Crazy that was five years ago!

She got her IV put in (on the third attempt, poor thing) 

And then we waited for the CT scan.  They really take care of their Peds patients there.  They had a stuffed animal and some coloring pages there when we got there.  Then a lady hired specifically to help children through procedures and their stay in the hospital came and explained the IV to Kylee and let her play on an ipad while the IV was put in.  Then she gave her a Barbie (I assumed because she had three sticks, but maybe everyone gets one, I don’t know) and then she brought her a little craft- a wood jewelry box with paints and jewels to decorate it.

Doesn't look all that bad, does it?

We hung out until 8:30 or so (still no CT) when Ryan came to trade me places.  He was packed to stay the night with her since I needed to be home with Kaden.  And I had to take the other two kiddos to the triathlon in the morning.  Unfortunately, as I had feared, Kylee was not able to do the tri.  Sad, but oh well.

So I packed up everything we would need to night before.  The forecast for the morning of the tri was not good.  Rain and chilly weather.  I thought it might be miserable but I packed us up anyway.  Cheryl came along to help and thank heavens she did because I had Kaden in the stroller and I was trying to be with both kids and it was impossible.  So Cheryl stayed with Kaden and came wherever I needed her, holding our bags and cheering them on.

It was rainy.  Really rainy when we first got there.  They kept the kids inside except for the picture they took and everyone was soaked after that.

Then we went in and waited for our turn.  We saw Sadie's friend Devri (and my friend Brooke).

Sadie was in the smallest group and her group went before Dylan’s.  She got really bored waiting to start, all her pent-up energy.  And she did really great!

I was so impressed with how hard she rode her bike and how she ran the whole way even though she was tired.  I was expecting her to walk a little.  But she’s got a competitive streak.  She was tired by the end of it!

After she finished I went back inside just in time to get in line with Dylan to start his race.  He was bored too.  But excited.  I tried to tell him to swim slow since he had to go down and back- not just one pool length, but two.  He didn’t listen.  He took off splashing like crazy and wearing himself out.

  When he got to the other side he tried to climb out.  Once he corrected his mistake, he swam slowly back.  But he made it!  He’s very competitive and he rode hard on his bike and then took off running as well.  He ran hard, really hard.  And when he finished he was exhausted.  I was so proud of them both!!

Grandma can always get them to giggle when they're being cranky (mostly just Sadie being cranky)

We’re sad that Kylee missed out.  But we had fun.  And the rain stopped before the swimming portion was over so it wasn’t bad weather at all in the end.  Sadie was still freezing when she got out of the pool and insisted on wearing her pants, which slowed us down getting her dressed.  But that’s okay.  I love that my kids enjoy these kinds of things.  They are the best!