Busy Bags

So forever ago (well like last year) I mad a bunch of busy bags for Liam to play with when we are out at restaurants and what not. He hasn't even used them all yet and I am in the process on making a few more for our trip to Mexico. So I figured I would post them on here. These are the ones that stay in his diaper bag on a regular basis.

The Button Snake



 



This is made with a ribbon sewed to a button on one end and some pieces of felt sewed onto the other end to keep the felt pieces from slipping off the other end. I then cut out the squares and put a cut down the middle large enough to easily thread the button through. Liam does this one easily enough but needs to have me hold the button still for him while he threads the felt pieces on.

 

Stuff A Bottle

 

Super easy to make, I took the leftovers from the other busy bags I made (pom poms, popsicle sticks, and pipe cleaners) and put them in a cleaned out Gatorade bottle. He loves dumping everything out and putting it all back in. (sorry about the crappy picture)

 

Velcro Sticks

 

Again really easy to make, I just bought velcro circles that fit nicely on my popsicle sticks that I was lazy and bought already in pretty colors. I made a bunch of shapes and then put the velcro on accordingly so some have velcro on opposite sides of the stick, others have them on the same side. Liam isn't great at making the shapes yet but loves when we do it for him and then he looks through them like they are a window. Not exactly being used how I originally planned but he has fun so that is the main thing.

These are ones that Liam hasn't even used yet since I haven't swapped them out yet.

Pom Pom Matcher

 

I took small labels and colored them with sharpies that matched the colors of pom poms that I had. I then stuck them in the bottom of the ice cube trays and originally I was done. But then the labels started coming off so I took clear tape and put all the labels back with tape on top of them this time. And that seems to be staying better.

Button Matching

 

So this one was fun to make. I chose the buttons I wanted to use, I did 2 different shapes in each color. I then cut up some cardstock and traced each button in the center of the page and color it in and then I wrote what color it is and the shape for when he gets older. Then I had them all laminated so it will be harder for Liam to destroy.

 

And this last one he has used and loves but it doesn't live in the diaper bag yet.

Beads In A Water Bottle

 

This is a super easy one to make, I took a bunch of beads and put them in a cleaned out Gatorade bottle. Done. Liam loves putting the beads back in the bottle but normally doesn't have the patience to do all the beads before he dumps them back out and starts over again.

 

 I put all of these, (except the ones in bottles) in pencil bags that I got at Walmart for a dollar. After seeing it on Pinterest I am going to add a piece of cardstock to the back of each bag so that the bags can be more stable and not flop around as much. I will make about 6 more, some that I have already started but just haven't had time to finish. I love these because they are something for Liam to do while we are out at like restaurants so that he doesn't get bored and misbehave and they teach him things and were decently cheap to make

Broken Baby

So last Wednesday was a bad day. Around 8 hubby had me call him and he told me that Liam had fallen out of his crib this morning but he was doing alright, he just wanted to give me a heads up so I knew what was going on. OK, poor kid but as long as he is alright then it isn't that bad. Execpt he wasn't. At the end of my lunch break (around 9:45) hubby called again saying that Liam is apparently still upset and my sister in law, who was watching him thinks that he needs to be taken to Instacare and that I need to do it. Awesome. So I went and found my supivisor and explained what was going on and by 10 I was on my way to Liam.

When I go there the first thing he said to me was "owie", so sad. He was just laying on my sister in law's chest and apparently hadn't wanted to move or go anywhere all morning. We hung out for a little bit so I could get an idea of how bad he was and considering he kept randomly crying and holding his arm, I decided to have my mom look at him (she was an RN). So off to my mom's we go. She called me on the way and basically said we need to take him because there is no way for her to know if anything was broken, expecially in a toddler because she had never dealt with this before. On the way to my mom's, poor Liam fell asleep because it was his nap time but then woke up again when we got to her place and she sat in the back with him to try and comfort him on the way to the doctor.

We got there and he wanted to be held by me most of the time. He refused to stand on the scale to get weighed and was just freaking out in general. We hung out in the room for a bit before a doctor came in and basically told us that he needs an x-ray and a tech will be in soon to take care of that. We went to get x-rayed and he was allowed to sit on my lap to do it. The first few he was pretty good for, he just put his arm on the board, and the nurse would turn it a little for the right angle and he fussed a little but no big deal. Then we had to have his arm straight to get ones of the elbow, that didn't go over well. I had to hold him down and the nurse (tech I guess) would hold his arm down at the correct angle and he screamed like we were killing him. We managed to get the 3 and then I was trying to comfort him but I was wearing one of those bulky vests that are supposed to protect you and couldn't hold him very well so my mom came in and grabbed him from me to take him back to the room. I followed them a couple minutes later and they are standing outside the room with Liam clinging to my mom's leg, refusing to go in the room. We finally convinced him to come to me and I carried him back to the room to wait for the doctor to give us the results.

Well it took awhile and my poor kid was so upset and tired from his lack of nap that he was trying to lay down on the arm of the chair, saying "night night, night night". I finally convinced him that my arm was more comfortable to lay his head on and he fell asleep.

He woke up a bit later and then the doctor came back and annouced that Liam's arm is broken. Apparently toddler bones don't actually break, they are more flexible so they bend, which isn't good either. His had bent in 2 different spots, he said we would need to put a cast on it and they would put a splint on it until they are sure they swelling goes down. And that I needed to see if his normal doctor does casts or if they could recommend an orthepedic specialist. So I ran over to his doctor (Instacare is next door to the hospital where his normal doctor is) and made an appointment to get a hard cast on him on Friday.

By then it was past 1 and I took him home, gave him some more iboprofen and put him to bed. He slept for 2 hours and when he woke up he was really cuddly and still didn't want to do much, but by dinnertime he was running around and playing and even wearing the sling that the doctor gave him.

So Friday comes around and I take Liam to the appointment for the hard cast. After waiting for what seemed like forever (it was probably more around half an hour) the physician assistant comes in and takes the sling off and takes a look at his arm and the x-rays. He decided that we can do just a cast on the bottom part of his arm, that we don't have to have it go over the elbow, unless Liam pulls it off then he will get one that goes over the elbow that he can't pull off. He did really well when getting the cast on. We explained that it will help his arm feel better, and he sat nicely and just let the doctor fix it. And he only has to have it on for 3 weeks which isn't bad.

All in all, he will survive but it was a bad day all around. It was really hard having him consistantly cry and tell me that he is in pain and not able to do anything about it. That was one of the few truely difficult moments I have had as a mom. But we got through it and we are both alright.