Our Life Together

Distractions

"MOM!" Liam yells "Olivia is in my room again!"

I shut off the vacuum cleaner and walk upstairs to get her. Now that she can crawl she is all over the house and it seems even worse than with the boys.

"Your dad's supposed to be watching her." I tell Liam as I pick her up "Where is he?"

"With Jack."

I carry her over to Jack's room. Sure enough, Brad is in there with him. What they're doing, I have no idea. It looks like they're play fighting, but with all the crap laying around on the floor I can't tell. I put Liv down on the floor and watch as she crawls over to them. She reaches Brad's leg and starts to hit it until he notices. He let's go of Jack and picks her up right away before noticing me.

"Oh, did she get away?" He asks.

"Yeah." I look around the room "It's amazing considering how well you're watching her."

"Okay fine." He looks over at Jack "I guess the fun is over. Blame mommy."

"Oh, because I'm the bad one?" I turn away "Just don't let her get away again."

I walk back downstairs to finish cleaning. The living room is a disaster because we just got back from vacation and I can't stand it. We all have suitcases and clothing all over.

Just as I finish vacuuming the disgusting looking carpet, Gabe runs through the living room wearing his full soccer uniform. Dirty cleats and everything.

"Seriously?" I glare over at him "You know you're supposed to take those off before you walk on the floors in here if they're dirty."

"Sorry." He takes them off and runs up the stairs upset. I yell up to stop him, but he just shuts the door to the room. A few seconds later, Liam walks out.

"What are you doing?" I ask noticing that he's cleaning "Did you do something?"

"Gabe said he'll pick up my clothes if I clean this." He says before starting the vacuum. I'd be happy with this is it wasn't spreading dirt all over my mostly clean carpet. He keeps moving it completely oblivious to what's happening.

Just as I'm thinking things couldn't be much worse, Jack runs down the steps with a bloody nose. Not that he can help it, but the blood gushing out of him and down his little body is ALL over my house. The hallway, steps downstairs hardwood floors and even mixed in with the dirt covered carpet.

"Mommy!" He cries "My nose hurt!"

I quickly grab a few tissues and run over to hold him and stop the bleeding. He cries a little longer as I hold him, drenching the tissues and letting blood run down my shirt. I finally get him to calm down and look up to see Brad standing in front of me looking sorry.

"I hit him in the nose with my elbow when I bent over to pick her up again." He walks around me trying to see Jack "Is he okay? Is it broken?"

"I think he'll be fine." I turn him around and sit down "You're okay, right buddy?" He dramatically shakes his head no and tightens his grip on me.

"It hurt, mommy." He continues to cry. I pull him closer to calm him while Brad gets some more tissues and ice.

"Can daddy hold you?" He asks. He feels terrible about what happened.

"Yeah." Jack says quietly reaching out for him. I clean his face off a little and hold the tissues under his nose. Brad holds the ice on the top of his nose and that's when I realized how swollen it is.

"This doesn't look good." I tell Brad "It's already bruised."

"Shit." He mumbles "I should've been more careful. I didn't know he was right next to me."

"It's not your fault, babe. It was an accident." I pick up Olivia from the floor "We should really take him to get that checked out."

"Jennifer, they're gonna think I did it on purpose."

"Hey, Jack, was it an accident?" I calmly ask him. He nods his head.

"See? He's not blaming you. These things happen." I reassure him "Let's go."

We get Liam and Gabe, forcing them to come with. Jack cries most of the way there, and Brad continues to feel guilty about everything. Jack and I both know it was an accident and that he would never intentionally hurt anyone.

I carry Jackson into the hospital once we get there while Brad gets everyone else. The receptionist asks me a few questions as she checks him in and then tells me where to wait. We all sit there waiting as quietly as we can, not wanting to disrupt anyone.

"Jackson?" The nurse calls. We all get up and walk into the room. Brad holds Jack on his lap while I try to keep Olivia from crying.

"When did this happen?" She asks.

"About an hour ago. We were playing around and I turned to pick the baby up from the floor." Brad defends himself "I turned around from picking her up and elbowed him right in the nose. I didn't realize he was standing right there."

"Has it been bleeding since?"

"Yeah." I answer "It started to bruise right away, too. We held ice on it for a few minutes."

"Okay." She grabs the chart and holds open the door "You'll be in room 5. The doctor will be with you soon."

He gets told to go for X-Rays and then the doctor walks into the room a few minutes later. He takes a quick look at the X-Ray and then looks at Jack's nose for a while to examine it before coming to a conclusion.

"He definitely broke it, but it's just a simple fracture." He pulls Brad and I closer to show us "His nose isn't mishaped, so it won't need to be realigned. All we typically do with this is prescribe medicine and ask that you hold ice on it."

"How long until it's healed?" Brad asks.

"About 2 weeks." He answers us "You should notice lots of improvement within a few days. There might be some swelling that spreads to under his eyes since the facial bones are connected, but other than that everything should start getting better."

He leaves a few minutes later after giving Jack a sticker, and the nurse comes back with our discharge instructions.

We finally get to leave, and Jack falls asleep on the way home.  Brad carries him inside while I get everyone else.  The boys go up to their room and I put Olivia to bed after feeding her. 

"Well, it looks like your cleaning went well."