Yogi is 8

We celebrated Yogi's birthday on Friday with a full day of activities.

John cheffed up a breakfast of peanut waffles with whipped cream which was shared by Yogi, John, me and G-Pa, who is visiting. (G-Ma was in St. Louis visiting (great) Gramma.)

After that we decided to open presents and Yogi got showered with LEGO and games for Wii and his Nintendo DS.

We played games for the rest of the morning, and then went to Bucaneer Bay in La Mirada.Bucaneer Bay is not quite a water park, but among other things it's got 3 great tube slides (one is a sort of free fall that we all braved) and a lazy river you can navigate with intertubes. Our friends Apollo (the kid) and Xander (the dad) were there so we met up with them and lots of getting-away-from-the-monster games ensued on the lazy river, with occasional forays over to the slides.

After we closed down the water park we went for dinner at Yogi's restaurant of choice, Homegirl Cafe. The food was exquisite, and after dessert Yogi and Apollo became volunteer busboys and cleared our table. The staff was very sweet and generous, and Yogi got a card and a birthday brownie which blew his little culinary mind ("Mom! This chocolate!! It's so intense!")

The next day, Yogi got his first stitches when he backed into a floor lamp which cracked (the glass sconce hit the window framing) and rained down on him causing 2 lacerations in his scalp and one on his knee. It was a pretty bloody scene, but when all the blood was cleaned up and our jangled nerves calmed, the wounds didn't seem so severe. To be safe we called the triage nurse at Kaiser and she said to bring him in for a look. So we went off to the emergency room and Yogi ended up with a stitch in his head and one on his knee. He was so scared, and so, so brave. I've never had the chance to see him display such courage and it was truly amazing. First were the shots of lidocane. He was talking and talking and trying to get the whole process to slow down, but we were in the ER so it was hard to put the breaks on things. He said to the doctor "Don't stitch me right now, I need some time to calm myself!" and he'd put his hands together and close his eyes and do deep breathing, all this amidst tears and sobs. The lidocane was administered, one in the head wound and one in the knee wound, and he held so still while he gripped my hand and wept. Soon it was time for the knee stitch which turned out to be not so bad after the lidocane. When it was done I said "It actually looks pretty cool." He bent forward and peered at his knee and proclaimed urgently, "No! That's not cool! It's not cool!" He wasn't yet ready to marvel at medical science and the healing power of the body at that point. Then the doctor told him he couldn't move his head when he was being stitched. He was especially scared of having his head stitched because he thought it would hurt more than the knee because it was so close to his brain. He was in position with his head on the pillow, and suddenly said, "I really want to move my head, I really want to move my head! Wait! Can I just move my head around first?" The doctor consented and Yogi shook his little head around and around as fast as he could, again while sobbing, and it was amazing and cute at the same time. He was so good at talking about his fear and communicating what he needed to do in order to feel more comfortable. From his bedside manner, it was clear that the doctor had never encountered a young patient who was able to articulate so much about his experience. When Yogi shaken for a bit the doctor said it was time, so he put his head on the pillow and the operation was over in 2 minutes.

He spent Sunday and Monday recuperating - no swimming, no baths. But Apollo ended up coming over Sunday night and they were racing around as they usually do so my motherly fears were able to calm even more, which was a relief.

So that is how 8 started for Robert Yogi Wenk Sylvain: Fun, exciting, scary, triumphant. It was such a privilege to share it with him.