siren song

of all the phrases i have ever thought i want to tell my son, "buddy, do you hear those sirens? those are for you!" was never really one of the first to jump to mind. yet today i found myself saying those exact words to my two year old as we waited for the paramedics to arrive. and arrive they did. no less than half a dozen of them showed up, decked out in their carlsbad fire dept. t-shirts and turnouts, carrying a ungodly amount of equipment straight past the pile of poopy diapers outside the door and into our condo.

long story short, isaac took the worst digger of his life (funny that this phrase keeps coming up over and over again) this afternoon, and neither his mother nor i actually saw what happened. we were both within ten feet of him, albeit looking the other way (she at ryder and i at laundry) when we heard the thud. best we can piece together, he found a way to fling himself off the plastic slide we have on the back patio, landing firmly on the deck below. he didn't really make much noise at first, which freaked us out a little, especially when he was walking all wobbly.

i called the doctor triage line to ask if he had a concussion (again, not the first time this has happened), they told us to call 911, and thus the parade of suspendered men who showed up at our house moments later. we felt pretty stupid when he started running around when they got here, more interested in showing them his tricycle than submitting to their examinations. our expert opinion is that he got the wind knocked out of him and had his bell rung pretty good. he woke up from his nap with a decent bruise on his ribs, but beyond that he is his normal, active, center of attention self.

there are few things in life that can stress you more quickly than thinking something is seriously wrong with one of your favorite people in the entire world. i hate having to hold it together for him, annie and myself when all i really want to do is cry and yell swear words at the top of my lungs. i did have the presence of mind to tell annie to grab the camera, knowing even in the moment that it would make a great story later. not sure if 9 hours after the fact qualifies as "later" but it is getting close.

below are some pictures from this past friday that were taken by another fabulous photographer, kip gerenda (blog and website) who offered to shoot our family. i realized that semi-formal photos stress me out, getting everybody there on time and relatively clean. kip did a great job setting us at ease and getting some really good pictures.

isaac held his lion the entire time, proudly showing it off each time we asked him to.

i love this picture b/c it shows off what is currently ryder's most distinctive feature: the snaggletooth. the other teeth are pretty proportionate, but this one on the top seems to be bound and determined to leave a mark on the world. i also love this picture b/c it does not show his other most distinctive feature: his matching bruises on either side of his forehead. they are pretty much a constant thing for him these days and it seems that there is something wrong the gravitational pull of his head b/c whenever he falls, he lands on either side of that dome of his. they are amazing symmetrical, almost like there are little devil horns waiting to bust through the skin at any moment. maybe they are extra snaggleteeth.

we also liked this one, mostly b/c ryder is paying absolutely no attention to the camera, only to grabbing a handful of mom's hair to stuff in his mouth. yep, this pretty much captures our life.