Nick broke both the bones in his left forearm this morning, producing much angst and stress on the part of everyone here, but especially me. Dealing with your own catastrophic (or at least really gross) injuries is one thing, but seeing them on your child is another matter entirely. What’s most disconcerting to me about Nick’s situation is the fact that when the ER doctor came in with Nick’s x-rays, he asked if Nick had a previous fracture or break in the arm, and when we answered, “not that we know of,” the doctor showed us x-rays that very clearly showed a previous break in Nick’s arm.

Just take a moment to imagine how that felt to find out our son had broken his arm but couldn’t tell us…I can tell you how it felt to me…it felt remarkably similar to a punch in the gut. It’s a scary thing to realize your child can’t tell you when they’ve hurt themselves or are sick, and I can only hope we’ll reach a point where Nick will be able to tell us when he’s having a problem.

For now Nick’s got a temporary splint and a sling, and hopefully we’ll have him in to see a Pediatric Orthopedist on Tuesday or Wednesday so his arm can be fully set and cast.

That’s the day Nick’s new therapist will come to visit him here at home for the first time. We met with the folks from the Autism Behavioral Network this week, and I have to admit I was tremendously impressed with their approach to therapy. Nick’s a lucky little guy, and I’m glad he’s about to start getting the help we’ve always wanted for him. There’s no doubt things will be difficult as Nick adjusts to his new routine, but I know the tough times will all be for the best in the end.

“It’s like a whole buncha stuff in my mouth!”

So said my stepdaughter as she bit into her All-American Thanksgiving Burger, a burger she helped create. Last week my wife took Alexis to Red Robin to eat after school shopping, and while they were at the restaurant, they picked up an application for Red Robin’s Burger Contest for kids. After they got home, we all started brainstorming on unique and interesting burger ideas to come up with something that’d knock the socks off the judges. As we were mulling over different ideas, we came up with the idea for the Thanksgiving turkey burger.

Now I can’t reveal all the ingredients here, as I don’t want to give away any secrets, but I will say the burger combines all the best parts of Thanksgiving into a burger. We made the burgers tonight, and they were a resounding success, hence Alexis’ quote, and now that we know the burgers are delicious, we’re going to help Alexis submit the recipe for judging.