an afternoon at the ER

We were playing with Everett's gal pal Emeline and my friend Katie. The rain had driven us inside from the park and we figured chick-fila's playplace would be a good alternative. They played some, they ate a little, and then went back to playing. It was just the two of them and they were loving it. They were absolutely adorable hugging and hanging out.

Everett was running and jumping around like his normal wild self when he tripped... headfirst into the first step of the play area. He started crying immediately and I went to scoop him up and check out what was most certainly a nice big lump already forming. We've had about a million falls like that and a million bruises to go along with them, unfortunately, this was no lump. I turned him around and saw a huge cut and blood. Like any normal mother- I freaked out and said,"Katie! What do I do?!" He was gushing blood and running away from me. He does that when he's hurt. It took the worker from Chick fila with ice cream and a bandaid to get him to come close. We wiped up the blood, put on the bandaid, finished the ice cream and headed for the car. We headed home and I called Aaron. Normally, Aaron would be at the office and over an hour away. Today, he was working at home on a big project. I couldn't be more thankful he was there. We stopped at the house. At that point, we weren't sure if he needed stitches or not, but it had started bleeding again so we ended up going to the local ER just in case. Everett was running around the waiting room playing with a ball and in the water fountain. He was happy as could be as long as we didn't touch his boo-boo.

Everett's name was called and we headed back to get his weight and temp and hang out until the doctor showed up. Everett was fine up until this point. As soon as the doctor came in, he started freaking out. He wanted Aaron and I to sit beside him and hold his hands. The doctor took off the bandaid and immediately knew he needed stitches because of the crazy swelling. She came back in a few minutes with a nurse and a straight jacket. It was at this point that Everett AND Mama started freaking out. He wanted me to sit beside him, but I couldn't handle it, afraid I'd throw up or scare him more because of the look on my face. Aaron ended up having to hold him down while they put a shot of local anesthetic and put 5 stitches in his poor little head. I was literally crying in the corner. I've never felt so helpless. It was downright awful. The beautiful thing? Children are so resilient. 5 minutes after he was released from the straightjacket he was talking to us and happily eating a lollipop. We had to stick around at the ER for precautionary x-rays and then were able to head home soon after.

We watched a little of Nemo and then I took him up to take a nap. He was so tired, so sad. When I laid him down he patted the pillow in his crib and said "C'mon Mommy." After a day like that I just couldn't say no and prayed I wouldn't break the crib as I crawled in with him. ha. I wish I had a picture of it. We both fell asleep and miraculously I woke up a while later and was able to crawl out and not wake him up. He woke up pretty unhappy, but acted more and more like himself as the night wore on. Nothing Buzz, Woody, Nemo, and his favorite doggies couldn't fix.

After a day like this, I couldn't help but thank God for the way He worked things out for us. The fact that Aaron was at home and not an hour away. That I was with a friend and able to get him in the car despite the scene in Chick fila. The sweet staff at St. Joe's urgent care who played with Everett and gave him stickers and popsicles and love. It was a hard day, one I don't want to repeat anytime soon, but I'm thankful for the blessings even in the trauma of today.