My darling son

The Top Picture was taken this morning. The Bottom Picture was taken yesterday.

Soo in true "Clyde" spirit there was an accident in the Pickle fams yesterday. And it involved screaming, blood, concrete and the poor darling extremely handsome face of my 2 year old. My kids were outside playing in the back yard on the patio, I had just walked inside to write something down and all of sudden I heard Bonnie scream followed quickly by Clyde's BLOODCURDLING screams!! I ran outside and came face to face with a bloody creature that pseudo resembled my baby boy. There was blood everywhere....leaking profusely from his nose, spilling out of his mouth and his nose was flat and purple. I immediately starting freaking out on the inside...I am usually calm when it comes to emergencies that involve my children but I have NEVER seen that much blood coming out of one of my babies. I ran into the house with him in my arms and headed straight for the bathroom to rinse his face off and see where exactly he was bleeding from. I screamed at Bonnie to get Daddum because he was resting before watch and as he comes flying out of the bedroom I realized that there is a huge gash on the inside of Clyde's lip and he is bleeding from BOTH nostrils. Daddum takes over holding Clyde because by now our son is hysterical and shaking and he screams at me to call 911.

Again one of the perks to living in the forest-y, secluded parts of Mississippi--the nearest hospital is 35 minutes away!! So the NAS Meridian Fire Dept and EMT's arrive and god bless them but seriously they looked more puzzled over the situation that Daddum and I were. Then a base police officer comes barreling through the door like he is playing out the first stage of his hostile takeover of the Dill house. AAGGHH!!! He needed me to fill out some paperwork, I am assuming because we had called 911-I dunnoo...I just knew that at that moment I did not care about paperwork I just wanted the blood bath that was my son's face to stop!!! They said we could not ride in the ambulance with Clyde because the EMT's needed to be back there with him and we would have to be buckled up in the front seat....ummm nooo. So we dropped Bonnie off at the neighbor's (THANK YOU FRANCOM FAMILY--YOU SAVED OUR DAY!!) and Daddum and I loaded up the PMV. Now Daddum said I was going 90 mph all the way to the hospital however I would like to claim temporary mph black out during the driving -I had one mission --get to the hospital QUICKLY so they could fix my son.

In what seemed like endless minutes and cruddy traffic lights (like who really needs those?? ) we made it to the Emergency Room and Daddum ran in with Clyde in his arms and we got seen fairly quickly...although if you ask me I think there was a smidge of lolly gagging going on and the ER nurses could have moved a LITTLE faster. But anyways our nurse came in told us Clyde's nose was probably broken (AAAHHH!!! SHOCK!!! HORROR!!!! SADNESS!!! My darling son and his handsome Dill nose--it would totally not be the same!!) and that they wanted to either take X-rays or a CT Scan to see how MANY bones in his nose may be broken!!! OHMIGOSH!! Insert near hysterical and guilt ridden Mama here, Daddum kept his cool and just kept saying "We'll figure it out and the doctors will take care of him.." We went back for a CT scan with Clyde and we kept singing to him to keep him calm; I am sure we looked like a totally sane parents belting out "ABC's" and "You are my sunshine" in the rooms and the hallways of the hospital. But Clyde did beautifully in the CT and minus Daddum singing a slightly LOUD rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" we got out of there unscathed. So then the dreaded part....we wait until a radiologist can read the scan and we go from there.

While we were waited eons for the results (ok ok it was probably closer to a half hour but I was still a little hysterical and I needed answers, results, Jesus, a slap, and some chocolate-what can I say I am a nervous eater) Clyde fell asleep and we calmed down and re-centered a bit, well Daddum was pretty calm but I re-centered during this down time. Then miracles upon miracles the ER doc walked in and told us that there Clyde did not have a BROKEN NOSE!!! PRAISE JESUS!!! The doc said that although his nose looked like a prizefighter's work and despite the amount of bleeding Clyde was just banged up real good. And on a totally unrelated tangent apparently my son has bad sinusitis and needed a shot of antibiotics to combat the inflared sinuses. Clyde was back to his normal self after his ER power nap and the Parents ran into WAGS to get his prescriptions filled looking like homicidal maniacs with blood ALL over our clothes but oh well. All's well that ends well.

Its now been 3 days and the skin around his eyes are going black and the swelling looks bad but my son is going to be okay. He hates us putting triple antibiotic ointment on his road rash but he just fights us for a second and then he gives in. He is on antibiotics for a few weeks and we are trying to give him meds to combat swelling (ice packs would be better but have you ever tried keeping an ice pack on the face of a 2 year old banshee, I meant boy...haha...I would have a better shot achieving world peace.)

Thank the Maker that it all worked out..the power of prayer!!! And I think it goes without saying that inside play is the only kind that the Pickle kids will be partaking in...preferably atop mounds of pillows and blankets while wearing helmets and mouth guards!!! Just kidding, well sort of....not really....hmm...now where are the helmets?? Ohhh...a day in the life of the Pickles!!!

I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war.

GEORGE W. BUSH: