Poor Graham

Today started out like any other day.
Jeff headed into work for a staff day-retreat, away from church, to plan for Christmas.  I got the boys ready, brought them to school, and picked up a friends' daughter for a few hours.  Ava was excited to be my helper; we came to the house and made chocolate-chip muffins for her to take to Orlando with her family, then headed out to Target where she got a blue ICEE and I got a St@rbucks Tea Lemonade **addictive**.  We were wandering around the store and I got a phone call from Ava's mom, who is also the Asst. Director at the preschool.  Melissa was panicked, which is unlike her.  I was ready to assure her that I would have Ava back by the agreed upon time, but then Melissa asked if I was close to the school.  I knew something was up, and I could hear a child crying very hard in the background.  Melissa then told me that Graham had been pushed off of the playground and hit his head and scraped up his face a bit.
Ava and I abandoned the Target buggy and left as quickly as we could.
I arrived to the school and found Graham in the director's lap clearly shaken up but much calmer. I told him that I called the ped. and we needed to go to the Emergency Room.  He was not too happy, but agreed.
So off we went to the ER.  Fortunately, Graham was awake and alert.  He did vomit, but that wasn't too much of a surprise.  He was standing on the top stair going onto the play equipment and the bully pushed/shoved Graham out of her way to tag another child.  The step is a good 5-5 1/2 feet off of the ground and Graham is 43".  You do the math.  Fortunately I didn't realize how far he fell until AFTER we got home from the hospital.
He was examined, had several Xrays and a CT scan.  He was very brave.  He was allowed to sleep after the tests, and was woken up every 1.5 hours to ask his name, where he was, and to check in.  After 5.5hrs, we were told that his scans were all clear *PRAISE GOD* and that we could go home.  He has a concussion and abrasions to his face and shoulder.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  This is the impression of the rubber mat under the play equipment.  It's swollen and tender. Starting to bruise already

He was such a big boy letting me ice his shoulder.   I couldn't get him to hold the ice pack in place, so I busted out an ACE wrap.  You can see his eye and lip starting to swell in this picture.

We realize this could have been so much worse.  We are definitely counting our blessings tonight.  Please keep Graham in your prayers.  He is not wanting to go back to school if the bully is there.  He said several times today that he won't play on the playground, he will just sit on the bench and watch the other kids because he doesn't want to get hurt.  Pray that through all of this we can teach him about choosing friends and praying for those who do not demonstrate the qualities that we have instilled in our children.
Graham will get some extra snuggle time tomorrow, since he won't be going to school due to his concussion precautions.
I'm off to get some sleep before the 2AM drill of his name and where he is.  Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.