Power Outage and Eli's First Stitches

Ohhhhh what a week! I don't even know where to begin. I guess it all started with a huge storm that passed through on Tuesday evening. We had hurricane-strength winds blow through here (70 mph winds) as well as tornado sirens and thunderstorm watches... it was quite the experience. When Ben and I heard the tornado sirens go off at 9 p.m., we stood frozen at the top of the stairs, trying to decide if it was really necessary to wake up our kids and run to the basement. About two minutes later, the power went off and Charlie woke right up since the sound machine turned off abruptly. Eli somehow slept through his sound machine turning off (I know, it's silly that they both have them, but Ben leaves so early in the morning that this is how we keep them sleeping later... it's my sanity saver!).


We pulled Charlie out of bed since he was awake and stood in the dark at the window watching the huge trees around our house sway and bend in the crazy wind. I ran downstairs to get some flashlights and Charlie had the best time running around in the low-lit family room. (We decided it wasn't likely there would be a tornado here based on what the weather.com info was saying about the path of the storm). Thirty minutes later, we managed to get him into bed and went to bed ourselves in our very dark house.

On Wednesday morning, we woke up to the power still being out. I was feeling semi-hopeful at that point that it would come on any minute... but as the morning went on, I got more anxious as I read a news article that said 400,000 people lose power during the storm, and more than 220,000 were still without power in the Chicago area. The electric company (ComEd) was estimating that power would be fully restored by Friday. There were tons of trees and branches down around our area and the towns north of us and it was slow going to restore power.

I loaded up the more expensive frozen foods (mainly meat) into a cooler and brought them over to a friend's house, and tried not to be too stressed that I had so much photography work to get done and no power to help me do it. Not to mention that I was supposed to teach the lesson in Relief Society on Sunday and needed my internet/computer to work on it.

By Thursday morning, I was SO frazzled about not having electricity for a second day. Our laundry was piling up, the dishwasher was full, and it was a pain to go in and out of the garage since I had to open and close it manually each time. I went over to friends' houses to charge my phone and computer, but I was so frustrated with the situation that I had a hard time focusing. Eli could sense that I was out of sorts and asked me on multiple occasions if I was doing okay. He is such a sweet, sensitive little guy.

When the power finally came back on Thursday at 2:15 p.m., Charlie was napping and Eli and I were hanging out in the family room building block towers. All of the sudden the lights flipped on and we got SO excited!! I am so appreciative of everything we can do when our electricity works.

Moving on to the drama from today... I was scrambling to finish my RS lesson this morning and Ben took the boys with him to visit an older couple in our ward before church. Ben called me at 12:25 and said they got to church early and Eli was running in the foyer, excited to be first in the chapel when he tripped (he only wears these shoes on Sunday, so I feel like he's a little more clumsy in them) and hit his head either on a table or corner of the door, and got this lovely gash on his forehead.

I think Ben handled it all really well and also had help from some nice people who saw what happened and rushed to get him paper towels to help stop the bleeding and a first aid kit. He managed to get both boys into the van and I met them over at the emergency room with Eli's favorite froggy and blankie for a little comfort. Here's his sad gash (the nurse covered him up with this "cape" to keep him dry when she rinsed and cleaned the wound):



After the cleaning, the boys hung out on the hospital bed while the cotton ball taped to Eli's head numbed the area to prepare it for the stitches. You can see Ben's iPhone on Eli's knee - the boys were entertained by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Backyardigan's episodes. It was such a great distraction.

Eli did such a great job holding still during the stitches. A nurse stood behind and held his head and I held his hands. I couldn't handle watching them put the stitches in.

Oh Eli. Your first stitches!! You are such a trooper.

We got home at 2:30 and then I pulled my things together and ran over to the church to teach the RS lesson at 3:10. I am so tired from this crazy week and am looking forward to a quieter, more predictable week coming up! You can see some pictures of one of my recent photography sessions here. I have lots more to post on my photography blog that I'll hopefully have time to put together this week.

*These pictures were taken with Ben's iPhone (first two images) and my Blackberry (the last one). The iPhone definitely won with better picture quality :)