This is Caden Allen. He is Katie and Steve's youngest child. He is almost 18 months old and is a real cutie.

Caden had a bad afternoon today. He and his big brother Tyler were playing with their "blankies" together and somehow Caden fell and hit his head. He ended up with a golf ball size knot right above his eye and cried for several hours. Steve & Katie took him to the emergency room right away and there was a 3 hour wait but they thought it better to wait there rather than drive to South Bend because if he'd start getting worse, he'd be closer to medical help.

While they were waiting to be seen by the doctor at the emergency room he played at a little kids table and chair set. He was sitting in one of the chairs and a little girl came in with her parents and he pulled out a chair and patted it for her to come and sit by him. I guess that got the attention of everyone in the waiting room and they all thought he was pretty cute...even with the big knot on his head.

We kept Tyler here while they were at the ER. Wayne picked him up in the parking lot of the hospital and Wayne said as soon as he got in the car he burst into tears and said....Don't tell my Mom & Dad but it's my fault that Caden's hurt. He did the same thing when he saw me. We felt so sorry for him and tried to explain it was just an accident. In about a half hour Tyler's parents called to give us an update on Caden and Tyler talked to his Dad and poured out his heart. His Daddy told him the same thing...it wasn't his fault. The relief showed on his face and even in his body language. Then he told me he didn't think Caden would be all right because all Caden's imagination and brains were in that knot. I explained to him that when someone gets hurt their body sends a lot of blood to the area so it can start to heal and it can cause that area swell like Caden's did and that knot on Caden's head wasn't Caden's brain and imagination....it was a collection of blood. He listened intently. It's just so hard to imagine what a child is thinking or how they are perceiving a situation. It showed me again how vulnerable children are and how much they need the guidance and unconditional love and understanding of the adults in their lives.

Well, Caden is going to be fine. The doctor said that they didn't even need to do a CT scan. Tyler got picked up a little bit ago and I heard him asking his Mom on the way out the door...will I catch that from Caden? Poor little guy...there's so much in life to learn yet!! Thank goodness kids are natural learners in every situation in life that they encounter. We are very thankful that Caden will be fine!!

I am adding this to say that I enlarged the pictures of Caden from this blog and noticed that they have a lot of white specs in them. I guess my scanner needs cleaned. If anyone looking at this wants a copy of these pictures of Caden, please email me and I will send you an attachment with these pics.

Had a great sandwich last night. Here's a quick recipe for it.
CHICKEN ROLLUP
1 package sandwich wraps (if you shop at WalMart they're by the deli...at least in Plymouth they are)
1/2 bottle thousand island dressing
6-10 slices of bacon, fried and drained well
1/2 pound turkey (or your meat of choice), sliced very thin
7-8 slices of muenster cheese
lettuce (I used a bag of romaine all ready washed and torn)

Lay out all the wraps on your countertop. Spread the thousand island dressing on each wrap making sure to get the dressing all the way to the edges. Sprinkle the crumbled bacon on top of dressing. Add 1 thin layer of the turkey on the whole wrap. Place 2-3 small pieces of the thinly sliced cheese at even intervals on top of turkey. Put lettuce on top of cheese and roll from the long side trying to keep them fairly tight without ripping the wrap. Slice each wrap in 2-3 pieces and either eat or wrap up and refrigerate to eat at a later date.

I'm not a big fan of turkey sandwiches. I will eat them but they have to be a little more exiting than your typical turkey and cheese between two slices of bread. This is a little out of the ordinary and the thousand island dressing gives them a very good taste.