One-Armed Bandit

Tobias is one of what Marc and his colleagues call, "the 10%". The theory is that 10% of kids have 90% of the problems. Tobias is our problem child.
He's the one who needed hernia repair when he was one month old.

He's the child who broke his femur at the ripe old age of seven months.

The one who needed stitches above his eye when he was one.

And again when he was two. I can't find the photo evidence at the moment, but trust me. It happened.

We took a year off from the E.R. when he was three, but last week we made a return visit.

Yep, he broke his wrist. Just a buckle fracture in his left radius. It will be fine. When he got home with Daddy after getting his x-ray and his splint he came running into my office to tell me, "Mommy! I getted two suckers and one chocolate piece of candy!"
Me: "Wow, that's great. Was it worth it to break your wrist to get the candy?"
Tobias: "Yes, it was totally worth it."

He didn't seem to think it was so awesome that night when he was trying to sleep or the next day when he realized that not bending your wrist limits your activities a little bit. Suddenly, there was a large list of things that he couldn't do because, "I only have one arm!"
"I can't eat shrimp for dinner! I only have one arm!"
"I can't go outside! I only have one arm!"
"I can't get my backpack! I only have one arm!"
He was pretty pathetic.

On Monday he got his hard cast on and they decided to put it over his elbow so that he wouldn't be able to wiggle out of it. I don't know where they would get that idea. It's not like he wiggled out of a full leg cast when he was a baby. Oh, wait, yeah, he did that. Anyway, I was super nervous that he would freak out about not being able to move his elbow but he's taken it all in stride. It doesn't seem to bother him at all.

When they asked him what color cast he wanted he chose orange. He told me after they left the room that if peach was a choice he would choose peach so it would look like a real arm. Now he calls it his "fake arm" and he has learned to use this fake arm as a club. He clubbed Benjamin this morning. We are trying to get him to stop doing that but it's tough when you can't take the cast away from him. It's getting cut off in three weeks but until then he will remain the one-armed bandit.