An Unfortunate Streak

Oh so many things. Let me start by saying that tomorrow, Monday April 23rd, is Ford's LAST day of law school! He still has finals but no more classes. It's truly hard to believe. Can it be real???
Next, it's been a rough week for little Evelyn. She took her first trip to the emergicenter...she's fine but it was eventful. She's a little trooper, but she suffered a deep and nasty cut between her thumb and first finger. How? Well, sadly this mishap happened during a moment of happy and synergetic play between two sisters. The girls were playing together with a toy top, Evie watched while Amelia pumped it vigorously to make it spin. Evie reached in and grabbed it at the wrong moment. I knew it when I saw her face. It was deep. There was blood. She wasn't happy. I grabbed her and raced to the kitchen sink. As Ford and I were tending to Evie, I turned to see a very pale and quivering lipped Amelia, her big browns flooded with worry. Now I had two kids in need. I gently assured Amelia that Evelyn was going to be fine. She couldn't hold it in any longer. She burst and then confessed while wailing, "it's my fault, I did it to her!" Guilt. My heart went out to the kid. I hugged her tight and told her it was NOT her fault and that it was just an accident. She didn't believe me. I hugged her some more. She sobbed. Now two kids crying.
So, time to divide and conquer. This was one injury Boo Boo Bunny was not cut out for. Ford had Evie duty and I stayed home to take Amelia's mind off of what was about to go down at the emergicenter. A tough decision for me...what child to be with? I'm the mom, I'm supposed to be with them when they get hurt. But let's face it, Ford is better emotionally when it comes to trauma...as he put it "when they get (badly) hurt it gets you straight in the heart." He's right. I learned this about myself my very first day of motherhood. I don't do well when my babies are in (physical) peril. I sort of crumble. Thought I'd be better at it and for sure better at it by now. Guess I'll have to work on that.
By Ford's account, it took two people to hold Evie down (she is amazingly strong) while the doctor poured hydrogen peroxide directly into the wound, inspected it and decided that while the cut was deep, gluing it would suffice...no need for stitches. Whew. Three or four layers of glue later, and only after the doctor left the room did Evie stop crying and immediately began giving Ford the business about what the heck just happened to her. While babbling, she began pointing toward the door, he asked her if she wanted to go home, she giggled nervously and nodded her head, like "heck yeah I want to go home!" She didn't cry about it again. Didn't even care about her bandage. On with life as usual. Keeping the band aid dry for 5 days was a bit of a challenge but we did it. She's healing nicely. Amelia seems to have healed as well.

Then two days later, Evie tripped and smacked her head HARD on the bottom crossbar of our dining room table. Even Ford reacted with an loud and unsettling "WHOA!!" I fully expected to pick her up and see blood pouring from her brown bone. But alas, spared again...just a nasty goose-egg. I have learned in my 4.5 years that those are quite common and usually harmless at this young age. Good to know. Dr. Frank in Nashville had his share of visits and calls from us after most of Amelia's bad head bonks. God made those little heads hard for a reason. Real hard. Good design.

But then, yesterday a fever set in with no apparent symptoms other than extreme crabbiness...she did seem more sleepy than usual. An infection? The beginning of a cold? Today, though the fever broke, we noticed red spots around her mouth and a few on her bum, a decreased appetite (although ice-cream was not a problem tonight)...I'm suspecting hand, foot, mouth disease. Sounds nasty but relatively common in children. Amelia had it at 12 months and with same progression of symptoms. A trip to the doc tomorrow to rule out anything else and then we deal. Let's hope this is the end of this unfortunate streak...did I mention we all had the stomach bug last month while Ford was on his spring break? Even the babe. THAT was a real doozie. To remind myself (years from now and several stomach bugs later) of this first bout of family stomach virus I will just quote Amelia yelling as she is running through the house and while Ford is running Evelyn to the kitchen sink (a little too late I might add) while I am lying on the bathroom floor unable to assist but listening to it all..."I'LL GET THE GREEN BOWL, I'LL GET THE GREEN BOWL!!"

Bottom line is even the second time around, these injuries and illnesses are still hard on baby AND mama. And daddy. And sister too. I am smarter than I was the first time around, and there is something to be said about that, but my heart doesn't ache for them any less.