JTOK Chatter > 2009 > Page 8

Year: 2009

Completely off schedule. Ugh.

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So I put him down in his crib (instead of the swing) about 7:30 because he looked tired—rubbing his eyes, etc. No dice. So I tried the swing, and that seemed to work for a bit—until I went up to check on him and turned the music off (but left him swinging—baby steps!). By the time I got out of the bathroom, his eyes were open. I let him be and by 8am he was screeching. I went up and he had pooped, ugh! So I changed him, and put him back down in the crib. More screeching. So I tried feeding him again, and he ate like 2oz. Put him back down and he’s wiggly and whatnot, NOT wanting to sleep, even though he REALLY needs to.

This is going to be a long day.

—time lapse—

I moved him to the swing and he finally fell asleep. I went up about 20 minutes later and turned off the swing and music. I haven’t heard a peep yet…so hopefully this is working.

Can you say failure?

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So last night we put Owen down about 30 minutes early (about 7pm). It may sound really early, but some nights he goes down at 7:30 so this wasn’t too much of a stretch. And the 30 minutes was the recommended tester starting time. He was out by 7:30, which was good. And we kept our fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, it wasn’t meant to be.

He was up at…11:30! And not just a “happened to wake up and will fall back asleep” up, but a “crying desperately for food” up. |-| That meant I basically had an hour nap. XX(

I really think something else had to be at work, because other nights, he has gone down at about the same time (i.e. give or take a half hour) and slept the entire night!

So after that 6oz bottle, he was up again at 4:30 (so, four more hours for me). We haven’t had two bottles in one night in FOREVER!!! I thought maybe he finally felt better, but this morning he was still congested and coughing. So who knows.

All I know is I am tiiiiiii-red today.

Outside belly time!

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Since it is so gorgeous today, we went outside for belly time! And then we played in the grass again. I took about 200 pictures total today, and kept about 60 of them—and of those, there are probably five really good ones. This is the best from outside:

And of course, Maggie wasn’t too far away:

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

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So I bought this book on a friend’s recommendation months ago and initially flipped through it. We were past most of the 8-12 week stuff (I hadn’t had the book then!) and he was still a bit too young for the 4-5 month stuff. I did, however, try to start paying attention to his sleep cues so I could put him down for naps instead of just waiting for him to fall asleep in his bouncy seat or on me.

But, since he just turned four months, it was time to revisit it.

So I just finished about half the book (skimming some parts)…and we have some changes to make. Hoo boy.

For one, we need to try an earlier bedtime. Right now, we try to do it any time after 7ish (it can be as late as 8). We have just been trying to see when he seems to get tired/hungry and go from there. But the book suggests trying 6:30 (well, 20+ minutes earlier than normal), saying that parents are afraid to try it thinking that the kid will get up earlier in the morning, but it generally isn’t the case—it actually helps them sleep longer. So we definitely need to try that. He isn’t sleeping THAT badly, but it would be nice for him to sleep longer. But it also relates to his morning nap…

He has been taking looooong morning naps. Generally anywhere from 3-4 hours! It’s not awful, but it is a sign that he might not be getting enough nighttime sleep (see the relation?!). Getting more sleep at night might lessen the length of the morning nap, which might then help with his afternoon naps (which he hasn’t seemed to want to take lately). Everything is related.

And speaking of his morning nap? We put him in the swing and he loves it. Well, that is okay to do as well…but it’s recommended that once he’s sleeping, you need to stop the swing. Even though it appears they are sleeping soundly, motionless sleep is best.

There is just so much to try and learn/remember… Now we just have to get dad to read the book so we can both be on the same page!!

To Those Born 1930 – 1979

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From an email that is circling around these days which I thought was pretty good and worth a reprint here:

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because…

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play stations, Nintendos, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?! :>>

To the Woman Sitting Behind Me

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http://blogs.chron.com/ar…dience_mem.html

This is a great letter a friend wrote about his recent experience at the theater. We are trying to convince him to write it as a Letter to the Editor! He sent it to the local newspaper blogger and they published it!

To the Woman Sitting Behind Me at Fiddler on the Roof:

Thanks so much for your recent performance. I could tell you are not a professional performer due the fact you were unable to hit the right notes and you didn’t care about pitch or tone. But kudos to you for belting out every song like you were one of the trained, highly skilled and experienced performers up on stage. You didn’t let your lack of traditional talent get in the way! I also liked the way you, at times, sung all the lyrics half a second ahead of the people on stage, obviously to let those around you know that you had, in fact, memorized the lyrics and weren’t just singing along. I caught what you were doing, you sneaky devil, and am in awe of your skill!

I also noticed all the other touches your brought to the performance. It was very helpful that you blurted out the names of each new character that came on stage and let out a spastic little round of applause like an excited 3-year-old at Christmas. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait for the story to unfold as the writer intended. An added bonus was you blurting out the punchlines to the jokes ahead of the actors. Obviously the comedic timing of the actors was off and you corrected it all by speeding it up. Good job! And your enthusiastic clapping along to the music, when no one else in the audience was, really added to the performance. Why would I want to hear the trained orchestra when I could hear that wonderful clapping? I loved that you didn’t choose to clap on the beat, as most people would, but sort of randomly clapped here and there, imitating (in an obviously mocking fashion) people who have no rhythm. What a great interpretation!

Finally, at the end of the performance, I loved the loss of hearing I temporarily enjoyed as you repeatedly shouted, at the the top of your lungs, “Bravo,” and “Topol,” (refering to name of the actor in the lead role) directly into my right ear. Yes, the standing ovation the rest of the theater engaged in seemed like a spit in the face compared to your enthusiastic celebration of the performance.

Your new fan,
Theater Goer

PS: I heard you mention on your way out of the theater that you had tickets to an upcoming performance of Cabaret. I just checked my calendar and it is with great disappointment I must tell your that I will be busy with other engagements during that show’s entire run.

Cough, cough, cough.

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Poor kid, he woke up this morning with a bit of a cough. He’s been sneezing a little more over the past few days, but didn’t think much of it until noticing the coughing this morning. Unfortunately, we missed a mommy group play date because I didn’t want to take any chances infecting the other babies if he is really indeed sick.

The coughing isn’t THAT bad—it just scares the bejesus out of me! But just in case, I did my research (baby books + parenting sites + WebMD) and I don’t think a call to the doc is warranted quite yet: no fever, no continuous barking cough, no mucous, no blood, etc.

He doesn’t seem too worse for the wear…so far (knock on wood). A little cranky, but not bad. He’s eating and napping like normal.

I am, however, setting up the humidifier in his room tonight—and we’ll also be elevating the head of his crib (hopefully he won’t do a 180).

Keep your fingers crossed it doesn’t get any worse!

Watch me play with a new toy!

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A mom in my group had a similar one of these for her baby who loved it! Of course, I was interested, and she said it was from Babies R Us. Well, of course we don’t go there unless we HAVE to (it’s close and convenient, but very small and not a big selection)…so when we were walking through the baby aisles at Target last night (as we do every time we hit Target) and saw this one (it’s a Baby Einstein Bendy Ball)….well, we just put it in the stroller with Owen to see if he would like it—and he played with it the entire time! So, of course, we bought it!

He has many other rattle-type toys meant for grabbing, but this is the first one he has actually grabbed on to and played with. :>> It is very sturdy and actually a little heavier than I anticipated by just looking at it—I was worried it might be too heavy for him to pick up (since we had never really seen him pick up anything before) but he manages with no problems!

Night #4?

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Well, tonight he went to bed without dinner. 😐

Around dinnertime-ish (6:30) he started to get REALLY cranky and should have been hungry but he didn’t want to eat. So we thought we was tired (since he hadn’t really napped since his looooong 4-hour nap this morning). He refused to nap.

He was crying and snorting and wiggly and everything else—TOTALLY not like him, so we were sure something was wrong. So we figured he maybe had to poop or had gas, so tried the mylicon gas drops. And tried making a new bottle (his rice cereal bottle). Burped him. Changed his diaper.

STILL cranky.

But we noticed that while he was laying down he seemed better, so we put him in the crib with the mobile on and within about 10 minutes he was OUT. So he went to bed without eating…which probably means he will be up in 4-5 hours (or less).

So I can only imagine what the rest of my night will be…

Night #3?

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Yeah… Not so much. 😐

It was back to normal last night—he went down about 8:30 (again, with about 7oz of rice cereal + formula) and was up wanting to eat at 2:30! Of course, I had stayed up until about 10…so I didn’t get much sleep.

After he ate and I put him back down, I kept checking on the monitor, and he moved around and whatnot for almost AN HOUR. I don’t know what time he finally fell asleep again, because I gave up and fell asleep sometime after 4. (I wasn’t staying up specifically to watch him—I wasn’t tired! I probably don’t have to tell you how much it stinks to be wide awake at 3am and not be able to get back to sleep.)

He is still sleeping now, which is good—except that now I am up because it is light out, I heard Tom getting ready for work, the dog came in to sleep with me, and I like to be up before him to be ready in case he wakes up screeching for food.

So…were the past two nights a fluke? Or was last night a fluke? Stay tuned for night #4!

Rice cereal results: night #2

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So, anyone want to take a guess what happened? At bedtime, he ate about 7oz of formula with 1 T. of rice cereal in it.

And???

He slept from 8pm-5:30am!! 88|

For those of you not wanting to do math, that’s 9.5 hours! Did you hear me? NINE AND A HALF HOURS!!! 88| 88|

Holy freaking cow.

Of course, I didn’t sleep nearly that long…we went to bed about 9 and I woke up at 3:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. That said, I still got a straight six hours (well, one bathroom break)!

The good morning continued by Tom not going to work out, so he was able to feed the boy while I showered and FINALLY put away three baskets of laundry that has been sitting in our room for weeks!

And then after a completely-different-smelling poopy diaper change (rice poop!), Owen fell back to sleep for another 30 minutes, which let me eat breakfast and start the laundry—and sit with Tom for a little bit before he left for work!

As I write this, he’s waking up and fussing a bit, so it’s time for mom duty.

It’s the little things.

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I hate that little things make me lose my mind lately.

Like just now, putting the sheet pan into the oven with sliced garlic bread and chicken nuggets on it, and I hit the edge just right and the entire tray tipped into the oven and across the door.

And I lost it.

None of it even hit the floor, and it was all salvageable within a minute, but I still lost it. I slammed the pan down, slammed the oven door, etc.

I hate being like this, never knowing what is going to set me off.

I blame it on sleep-deprivation.

Again, it’s a good thing Owen is cute and worth it. 😀

Rice cereal comments…

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I posted this to Facebook last night:

Jennifer Hudson just gave Owen his first taste of rice cereal—he wasn’t too thrilled.

And I am totally loving all the comments from everyone:

Karen Gustafson Mehollin at 8:52pm June 3
For Mason, I used to mix it with pear or apple juice for some flavor…and to help him poop. 🙂

Tommie Smith at 8:52pm June 3
Max didn’t know what to do with it the first time either. Try again in a few days.

Jennie Precour-Kav at 9:32pm June 3
Mine HATED it in formula but if I mixed it with a little bit of veggies or fruit she loved IT!! but cereal in formula was a big fat NO! Maybe mix it with his milk and feed it to him with a spoon instead of in the bottle

Heather Cogswell at 9:34pm June 3
If he doesn’t like it, go with another food. There are a good number of well tolerated first foods for babies.

RedStrapper Racing at 9:38pm June 3
A little rice in that bottle and he’ll be sleepin all night!! gives the tummy somthing to work on & he wont be getting up all the time hungry. All 4 of my boys got that @ two months old…

Michele Hanson at 10:26pm June 3
We had better luck with oatmeal than rice cereal. He liked it better and less “tummy” issues.

Mary Langbeen at 11:02pm June 3
My 6 month old “just” started finger foods, now that she can grasp well. It took us a couple kids to figure out that baby cereal wasn’t all its cracked up to be, and don’t use it. But if anything oatmeal has more nutritional value and is easier on the tummy. Rice has the tendency to clog things up.

Emilee Patrishkoff at 12:52am June 4 via Facebook Mobile
we went with the finger foods as well—both lo’s started around eight and nine months when they showed interest and were able to pick up small pieces—seemed to work well for us, they both do their little happy dances when they eat—we started with things like avocado,pears, sweet potato and such because i thought the rice cereals were kind of nasty tasting

Dayna Rogers Christison at 3:18am June 4
Rice is like glue. Try oatmeal instead, and put sweet potato in it, or peas.

Jo Wright at 11:50am June 4
screw cereal. mashed banana or avocado are great first foods, and much more palatable!

Claudia C H Palma-Morgan at 12:49pm June 4
cereal at night is what finally got my baby to sleep through the night. I guess I wasn’t doing it for him and a full belly made him sleep!

Secretary of State – Ugh.

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So Tom has to change license plates. Well, let me rephrase. He wants to go back to his Michigan State University license plate vs. the North Carolina license plate he got when he bought the car.

Of course, it’s a total PITA to get to the SOS with his schedule, so I figured that I would just call the out-of-state military resident line to hopefully just change our address (which is what we did to change us to an out-of-state address) but noooooooooo…since we are in the state we have to go in and fill out paperwork. :crazy:

I should have just lied and said we were moving back soon and here’s our new address. But then with my luck, she would have just said “Well just wait until you actually move here and come into the office.”

I know if you could just change you address on the phone, everyone would do it. But we’re not everyone, we are military. Cut us some freaking slack.

>:XX

Owen’s Four-Month Checkup

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Well, for starters, he is a BIG boy!! He weighed in at—are you ready???

16 lbs 1 oz 88|

That’s a 5# gain from his two-month appointment! And he is 26″ long (7″ growth since birth)! The doc commented that he is a big boy—which is funny, because he doesn’t really seem THAT big to me.

She is still concerned about his flat head, and recommended an appointment with a physical therapist! I told her that I honestly wasn’t that concerned, and she did say that it will eventually round out, but that the longer it takes, the harder it will be—and that by this age (four months) it should be rounding out more than it is. She suggested we at least go to one appointment (she was pretty sure our insurance would cover it) and then decide from there. He just does not like being on his stomach—which she saw when she tried it in the office. Less than two minutes and he is NOT happy and lets you know.

She listened to his chest and said he does sound a little congested, but nothing to worry about—his lungs sound clear. She said if it gets any worse we can set up the humidifier but not to panic in the meantime. It might even be allergies. (I am not that worried, as he has sounded somewhat congested to me for the past month or so.)

She said we can start giving him rice cereal—if he wants it—since he seems to be developing quite well (weight, motor skills, etc.). She said it is NOT recommended to add the cereal to the bottle, however, because it’s better for them to start getting used to the spoon and eating normally. So, we might try rice tonight!! I’ve got to go dig out the baby spoons!! She still recommends veggies wait until six months.

She noticed his eyes were still leaking but didn’t seem concerned with it. We are to keep using the medicine and keep it clean with warm washcloths. She said six months is often the magic age at which that goes away.

I did ask about him being so out-of-sorts lately, and she didn’t really have any definitive answers (damn!). She said it could be due to a variety of things like a growth spurt, teething, reactions to the formula, allergies, etc. I even asked about the strange poop incident and she had no idea. She guessed maybe it was something I ate (passed through breastmilk) but I am not breastfeeding or pumping anymore, so I said that couldn’t be it. Then she was stumped.

And then came the dreaded immunization boosters. Tom was with me this time—so he got to experience the trauma for himself. Part of me wants to cry (of course) seeing my boy in such agony…but the other part of me wants to laugh a little because his crying shrieks are so loud and fierce…yet cute at the same time. His little face gets pure red and he screams bloody murder…but then after it’s over, he calms down pretty well. By the time we were out of the parking lot, he was sleeping (it also helped that he missed his earlier nap so that + the shot trauma + car ride = hopefully a good nap). He’s still sleeping in his car seat as I write this.

So overall, it went well, and we don’t have to go back for two months, on his six-month birthday.

Yeah, so…

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Something had BETTER be up, because I don’t like what my baby is turning into. 🙁

Last night he was out cold after 4oz at 8pm, and then was up at—are you ready?—10:30!!! >:XX

And I was up until almost midnight with him because he was extremely fussy and fidgety and not wanting to eat then wanting to eat then spitting up. I even gave him some gas medicine in case that was the issue.

He did, then, sleep until 5am, but this morning? His eating is off, he refuses to nap, and he’s still VERY fussy and fidgety—including crying and fussing loudly, which he NEVER does. Before this, he always ate well in the morning and always went down easy for a long nap. But not lately!

It is soooo frustrating. I know he can’t stay exactly the same forever, but this is such a drastic change for him, something has to be wrong. And then I feel guilty because it’s driving me insane—but it’s not like it’s his fault! This is when I feel like a failure as a mom. Like I am NOT cut out for this.

I hope the pediatrician has some answers today.

Being (Dis)Organized

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I love to be organized. Really, I do. I love bins and crates and my little P-Touch labeller.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t quite work out that way all the time.

My left ankle started hurting the other day. I don’t know what I did to it (if anything) but I thought I should wear my brace again. I do have two of them, remember, from when I fell down the stairs last year.

At that time, I knew I had one ankle brace in the house (I think I needed it back in high school or college, and I’ve been carrying it around with me the entire time). But do you think I could find it? Of course not. At the time, though, I needed two (one for each ankle I screwed up!) so as long as I was buying one, I just bought two.

So fast forward to now, when I need one. And can I find either of the two from last year? Of course not! But I did happen to run across the original one that I couldn’t find last year! How the hell that could happen is beyond me. |-|

My goal at this house is to get completely organized. It’s slow going for sure (I can only work during Owen’s naps, amongst everything else I need to do while he naps), but…it’s working a little since I was apparently able to find my old ankle brace!

Something has to be up.

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For the past few days, Owen has been out of sorts. Not horribly so, but definitely not his normal self.

One day he will eat like a horse (I think he did like 42oz one day) and the next you can’t get him to eat to save your life (he maybe did 24oz another day).

And then there were the two completely different poops within hours of each other (not eating anything different). No one I’ve mentioned it to has any ideas, other than to say “Does he feel okay?” I will be asking the pediatrician tomorrow for sure.

And don’t get me started on naps. Usually he’s good for a 2-3 hour nap in the morning, with various naps throughout the day—you put him down, give him his pacifier, turn on the mobile (and rewind it a few times)…and he’s out. Not this week. Yesterday he finally napped in his swing—from 3:30-7! 88| Today he won’t take a nap to save my soul. He’s catnapped a few times but that’s it. And he’s being a fussy eater today, too.

/excuse me while I go wind the mobile again

We think he might be teething, although he is a little young for that. (The typical age is about six months, although it can happen anywhere from three months to a year.) But he’s drooling and “chewing” on his burp cloths like crazy—which seems like a big sign. But we don’t feel or see any teeth yet.

He does sound a tad congested…but then again, he’s sounded that way off and on ever since we brought him home.

And he seems to be WAY gassier than normal.

All that said, he is still pretty happy overall. Still sleeping pretty well at night (from 5-7 hours). No screaming or crying or anything of that magnitude during the day. Just a general out-of-sorts-ness.

But what do I know? :>>

Poop!

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I never imagined I’d be intrigued by baby poop. :))

Today Owen pooped twice. The first was a thick pea-green/gray paste. A few hours later, he pooped a yellow/orange curdy semi-liquidy mess.

He eats the same thing, day in and day out…so how the heck can he poop so differently?

First outing alone with dad!

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Tom decided he was going to take Owen with him to the office today. (He doesn’t have to work per se, but he did have to do something quick.) Then they were going to stop by the store.

They were gone about two hours—and I didn’t know what to do first! So many things to do, so little time. But I ended up working on the computer downstairs.

Tom said it went fairly well…except he had to be changed (and said the diaper in the bag was too small, but it was just a different brand that he wasn’t used to), wanted to be held the entire time, and wanted to eat but didn’t actually want to eat. So, a normal day. 🙂

Accident!

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So Tom had to work today (of course) and he called to let me know he was going to be a little late…someone on a bike hit him as he was pulling out of his parking lot!!

He didn’t give me many details because the cops were just getting there, so I was left wondering just what happened! He said bike so I thought motorcyle, and he had commented that his car was pretty bad—so I imagined the worst.

So, what happened?

Tom was in the drive waiting to pull out across a divided four-lane road into his turn lane. He checked for traffic and seeing none (and only seeing two bikers way off in the distance), pulled out—when a guy on a 10-speed ran into him and flew over the hood!

Turns out the guy was riding the wrong way on the street (against traffic—he should have been on the other side of the divided road) and he tried to “go around” the car instead of waiting for it—so Tom hadn’t seen him at all because he was coming from the wrong direction!

He crashed into the car, skidded across the hood, and went flying into the road. He was wearing a helmet, thankfully, and Tom said he seemed okay. There were witnesses, the cops were called, and it was definitely the biker’s fault.

Unfortunately, the biker didn’t get a ticket.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to pay our deductible because it wasn’t our fault.