Emergency Room Christmas

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that your 2020 is off to a good start. Today, I’m going to share a story that goes way back to a time when the Pittsburgh Steelers were 8-7 and still had a chance to reach the postseason. A time before Jake Guentzel of the Pittsburgh Penguins needed shoulder surgery. Yes, I’m going all the way back to December 25, 2019.

On Christmas, my family joined millions of others across the country by visiting a movie theater. We purchased tickets to see the animated film "Spies In Disguise" featuring the voices of Will Smith and Tom Holland.



We bought popcorn for the entire family to enjoy. Then, we sat in our reclining seats to eat our popcorn and watch the film. I should probably mention that patrons 3 and over are required to purchase their own tickets. Kids that are under 3, like Luigi (2) get in for free and have to sit on your lap. Not a problem.

During the movie, both The Moose (8) and Pedro Tulo (5) really enjoyed the ability to move their seats into a reclining position including an adjustable footrest. Near the end of the movie, Luigi decided that he had enough of sitting on someone’s lap and wanted to move around a little. There was plenty of room in our row to do this, and he could easily go between our four seats. Apparently not paying attention to his brother, The Moose closed the adjustable footrest...on Luigi’s foot. Luigi started screaming, so I quickly took him out of the theater. He calmed down after a few minutes, but he refused to let me put him down and he kept his head on my shoulder. We eventually went back inside because I had to know if Will Smith would turn back into a person from a pigeon. (I won’t spoil this for you.) I stood in the back with Luigi still in my arms. The movie ended, and we went home. Luigi was unable to put any weight on his foot though and cried whenever we tried to put him down to walk. With limited options on Christmas day (and agreement from our on-call pediatrician), my wife took Luigi to the emergency room while I stayed home with the older boys. The short story (since I wasn’t there) is that all of the X-Rays came back negative, Luigi was given some ibuprofen, and they came home. He also received Shaggy and The Headless Horseman as a gift from the hospital, so that almost made the trip worthwhile (especially since I haven't received a bill yet).

Oh, I also picked up some Chinese food. Christmas tradition!

Luigi limped some for the days following Christmas, and he still sometimes winces a little when we put on his shoe, but he’s fine. I think a New Year’s resolution for 2020 is to visit the emergency room less as a family this year than the two times we visited in 2019. In addition, between this incident and how I barely escaped Frozen 2, perhaps I shouldn’t take my family to the movies anymore!

How I Injured Myself At Frozen 2

Before I begin this post, I want to share some alternate titles. I Barely Survived Frozen 2. Or How Seeing Frozen 2 Almost Ended My Life. (Thanks to Chris for this one.) On to the post.

Thanksgiving. A time to come together with family and/or friends and eat lots and lots and lots of wonderful food. The day after Thanksgiving: well, the leftovers are good. Otherwise, um, I guess it's a positive that I didn't see any videos this year of people fighting or rioting at Walmart! Let's start with how my Black Friday began. The Moose and my niece (both 8) woke up sometime very early. They say that it was at 4:00, but it might have been 5:00 or 6:00. Regardless of the time, it was still dark outside, and they thought it would be a brilliant idea to wake up Pedro Tulo and my nephew (both 5). Hilarity ensued! Except that it didn’t. Naturally, all of the screaming woke up everyone including two-year old Luigi. So at just around 6:00, all five kids were awake. Fantastic way start to the day.

Oh, but there’s more. Luigi had too much milk too fast and proceeded to throw up all over me. This is still before 6:30. While Luigi was fine and the kids all settled down with some television and donuts, we decided to take a trip to the movies. I mean, what’s a better way to spend Black Friday than with five kids (along with a theater full of other kids) at Frozen 2?

We arrived at the theater 20-30 minutes before the scheduled start time to get seats. There were no movie star scrambles for celebrities like Otm Shank.



Instead, the kids devoured the popcorn before the previews began, and maybe 2 minutes into the film, Luigi got restless. And by restless, I mean that he started to cry. I quickly took him out of the theater, and after he calmed down a few minutes later, went back inside. While walking up the stairs to our seats, I tripped while holding him. He was a little shaken up but fine. Meanwhile, I banged my left knee into the floor or stairs. Apparently, I shouldn’t carry my kids up or down stairs. It wasn’t too bad at the time, probably because I was too embarrassed about tripping in public.

I limped around a little for a few hours, and then drove home. My knee must have tightened up during the drive, so throughout Friday and much of Saturday, going up and down stairs hurt. I couldn't seem to put much weight on my left leg when alternating stairs. It was okay if I put one foot on one step and the other foot on the same step. Alternating steps (like how a normal person goes up or down steps) hurt.

I’m blaming Josh Gad. No not Josh Gad being the voice of Olaf, Josh Gad himself.

A few quick spoilers from Frozen 2. How does Elsa just let Anna become ruler of Arendelle? Is there no democracy there? So much nepotism.

Elsa is a bad influence for kids. I’m not talking about her strength and independence or about how she tries to help others (in this movie, not the first Frozen where she runs away and abandons everyone, but it’s okay since she “let it go”). No, Elsa travels to really cold places but apparently doesn’t feel the need to wear a coat, gloves, or hat despite exposing her shoulders. I’m sure that there are countless parents battling their kids about wearing a coat in cold temperatures. The kids are probably refusing to wear coats, citing Elsa for not wearing one in the Frozen movies, and then replying, “the cold never bothered me anyway.”

Hot take. The songs in Moana are so much better than the songs in Frozen. And I’ve already forgotten the songs in Frozen 2.

Back to me, my left knee felt better on Sunday, but my right foot has bothered me on and off for the last week or so. I'm a mess!