Today has been so crappy in so many ways.  Firstly, I have never been an allergy sufferer.  I NEVER had allergies when I was living in Texas and most people actually do have them there.  Must be because of my native status or whatever.  Well, for the past two days I have been so congested, sneezy, watery and all out miserable.

Today is worse.  I just can’t even relax because I am either sneezing, sniffling, blowing my nose or trying to dry out  my watery eyes.

I thought it would get better as the day went on.  David and I had made plans to make a pineapple upside-down cake this afternoon.  First though we ran to Sam’s Club so I could finally get my free spouse card to that place.  David has always had a business membership and I was NOT about to pay a membership fee to that place since I was well aware he could get me a free spouse card.  Somehow, we only managed to walk out with a heaping bag of brown sugar (which we would later need for our cake) and then we corralled the kids back into the car to head out to lunch.

Applebee’s has become our family hangout I think.  We sat and had a great lunch and then were going to head over to Hy-Vee for some remaining ingredients for the cake. 

Of course someone had left one of those pretend car carts in the parking lot and naturally Nathan wanted to ride in it.  As we made our way through the store to get everything we needed, Nathan sat pretty quietly and contently in the front car portion of the basket.  Then, just as I am wheeling it through the checkout lane, he must’ve stuck his head out in an attempt to get out seeing as how we were finishing up our shopping trip.  It was at that moment that we all heard the loud “BOOM” and then the screaming and crying ensued.  I rushed to his aid realizing that his head had hit the side of the checkout lane next to us as he stuck his head out of the moving cart.  I felt like crap.  I should’ve been more aware of him because I KNOW how he is sometimes.  He is constantly moving about and he usually always wants to help unload groceries onto the conveyor belt.  Initially, I thought this was why he’d made an attempt to get away.

Then, as I had pulled him aside to console him and as David remained at the checkout lane to pay and watch over Will (who was still sitting nicely in the front part of the cart), as he’s crying and screaming at the front of the store I realize he’s wetting his pants.  Poor thing.  As it turns out, he later tells me he was trying to get out so that he could find the potty.

He literally cried the entire way home while I beat myself up emotionally for the whole thing.  I tried to replay it in my head to see if there was anything I could’ve done differently.  There probably was – like maybe pay more attention to him while in that thing or strap him into the front part of the ride instead of just allowing him to simply sit in there.  But, nothing to do about that now.

We came home and all rushed inside to take a closer look and I offered Nathan an ice cream sandwich (my mom always offers ice cream to fix a boo-boo!) and then we changed him into dry clothes.  He was still crying and complaining that both sides of his head really hurt.  I put him on my lap to hug and snuggle him when I realized he had TWO HUGE KNOTS ON EITHER SIDE OF HIS HEAD!  I freaked.

We all got back into the car and took him to Children’s Mercy South just to be safe.  We ended up waiting there for about two and a half hours before the doc finally came in and gave him the once over.  She checked to make sure that his bleeding (yes, one of the knots – the one on the right side – had blood on his scalp) was only an abrasion.  She also made sure he was alert, aware, checked out his vision and jaw and neck and spine.  Since he wasn’t exhibiting any signs of vomiting, dizziness, and never lost consciousness, they sent him home with a nice green apple slushie and pretty much told us to keep an eye on him for the next few hours.

He’s outside right now playing baseball with David and is acting pretty normal so I am just thankful that we were lucky on this one because that head bonk was really, really bad.

So, as the title of this post suggests, the cake has been our one thing that hasn’t turned out bad today and we’ve all enjoyed a piece of it.

Anyway, these allergies are buggin’ and I need a Kleenex.