Blood, Baseball, and War

We had quite a wild and a wonderful weekend. It all began friday morning. The boys woke up right at 7:30 and were great about getting dressed. I sent George and Henry down to get breakfast. Clifton followed. I was getting dressed when I heard running and a crash. George began yelling franticly for me. "Mom, Henry pushed Clifton down, and he's bleeding really bad!"

I ran downstairs to find blood gushing from Clifton's forehead and down his face. Blood covered is shirt and was all over the floor. I picked him up and ran into the kitchen to get a clean washcloth. It took a little while, but I was able to stop the bleeding and inspect the wound. It was pretty big and rather deep.

I told George to call his friend's mom to see if they could take him to school. He called and I heard him franticly saying "Clifton's bleeding all over the floor and I need to go to school." Debbie came and picked George up and took him to school for me. I called the pediatrician's office and Mike. The pediatrician's office told me to take Clifton to the children's hospital near by. Mike said he would meet me there. I was relieved because there is not a plastics physician on hand at the hospital by us, and Mike is pretty good at suturing wounds. I wanted him to make sure the er guy was doing a decent job.

We made it through the whole ER thing - I won't go into details, but it was pretty tough to watch your child scream as he is held on a bed writhing around as someone tries to sew up his head.

Needless to say we were happy to leave. This is a photo from Saturday when he was looking and feeling much better.

After the ER I picked up Henry from Lori's house and we drove to the airport to pick up Grandpa Rick! The boys were so excited to see him. (So was I!)

We came home and Grandpa and Henry played till it was time to pick up George from school.

After school George showed Grandpa how to play lego star wars on the wii. Grandpa was very patient as George tried to teach him to play.

Grandpa treated us to a Royals game that night. We had a sitter watch Clifton and the five of us headed to the game. The Royals were pretty pathetic, but we had great seats and it was fireworks friday! We all enjoyed the game and the fireworks.

Saturday morning we had a slow start. Henry wasn't feeling great and slept in. We had a big breakfast then went to George's soccer game. He was really good at running, but not so good at knowing where the ball was when he ran. (or running toward the ball.)

After the game we headed up to Independence to thr Truman Library. They have a great exhibit and the boys even enjoyed it. (Though not as much as Grandpa, Mom and Dad.)

We finished in time to go to Jack Stack for dinner. It was amazing! (Nothing compares with their lamb ribs!)

Sunday we had another slow morning. Grandpa and the boys practiced baseball in the backyard. He taught them how to throw and catch the ball. Clifton ran around trying to eat dirt and play in the mud.

After all the baseball practice, it only seemed appropriate to go to a baseball museum. We headed downtown to the Negro Leauge Baseball Museum. I didn't realize what a gem it was. There were so many amazing stories there. They have all sorts of baseball memorabilia and gear.

After Baseball we decided to head to the WWI memorial and museum. I had no idea how much was there. The museum had so much information and history. It was one of the best museums I have ever been to and deffinately the best war museum I have seen. They had two great films explaining how the war began and then how the US was drawn into the war. They also had a huge timeline of the war that helped clarify when different things happened and why. I was so impressed and so moved by it. My next book will be a WWI book - The Guns of August.

We left the museum as it closed and headed back home.

Monday morning we took George to school, then Henry, Clifton and I took Grandpa to Deanna Rose Farmstead - one of our favorite places. It was a cool damp day, and we had the place to ourselves. We then headed back to school to have lunch with George in the Cafeteria and then to drop Henry off at school. Before I knew it, it was time to pick up the boys and take Grandpa to the airport.

We were all sad to see him go.