Hello again ER, can’t say we’ve missed you

The day before the girls’ final performance of Little Mermaid, Ree flew off the swings and landed with a whoomp. Nothing unusual in that. These girls are daredevils. Always have been. Always will be. But this time was a smidge different. She was still mentioning an hour later that her arm hurt “a little,” and these girls never admit that anything hurts. So I packed everyone up (except for the iPads, curses!) and headed for the ER.

Three hours later, we were on our way home with an x-ray of her broken humerus, a molded fiberglass splint, and instructions to see an orthopedic specialist the next day to see whether her elbow was also messed up. Lovely...

The next day the ortho confirmed that the humerus was broken (and they don’t cast humerus bones), her elbow was fine, and the sling had to stay on for 3 weeks with no physical activity. I think I might have laughed a little at that one. We’ll do it, dammit, but anyone who knows these girls will tell you that the “no activity” agenda is going to be rough.

Now about that Little Mermaid play... Ree was teary and self conscious. She didn’t want to get anywhere near that stage with that huge audience looking at her sling. And her sister was freaking out too about suddenly going solo. But Ree (and the whole cast) had worked SO HARD for so long my heart was just breaking. We got a call at home from the costumer who said she could hide the sling and make sister’s costume match, and little Ree finally said she would do it. Whew... So we headed off to the big production, handed her off to the awesome costumer, and held our breath.

And...she did it!!

Performed all the songs and moves one-handed and smiled in spite of the broken arm (which was the costumer had masterfully disguised and she continues to insist doesn’t really hurt). I can’t even tell you how relieved we were when that grand finale was done.

Way to go little Ree (on the right) and sister Ro. We are so proud of you and think you two are the cutest little one-armed merfolk in the ocean.

PS: If you’ve known the girls for awhile, you’ll remember that Ree was also the one who snapped both bones in her left forearm (the other arm) at Gilroy Gardens the week before kindergarten.