"Anything You Can do I Can do Better"

Rachel is 20 months old and we have had our official first big injury. I am having a bit of deja vu as Levi was almost her exact same age when he had his first big head wound/injury. His was on the back of the head...

(Okay he was just a few days shy of 21 months when it happened, but pretty close)

I spared you all of the open-wound picture we took.

His injury was able to be fixed at home thanks to the fact that it was on the back of his head and he was a boy with very short hair. Rachel on the other hand took her head injury to the face and, girl or not, it was too big a gash to fix at home. I am pretty sure it was a blessing that I was not there because then I would not be able to get the actual event out of my mind. I do want to record what I was told happened for posterity sake.

I had an event at the church on Friday evening so Matt decided to take the kids to his parents' house to hang out for a bit. They had a great evening. Dinner, a walk, and just time with Grandma and Grandpa. They were getting ready to leave in a few and they were on the deck out back. Rachel (being the climber that she is) got up on a light-weight patio chair and stood to close to the back of it. The chair tipped over and she hit her face on the single step that leads from the deck into the house. This step does not have a sharp edge but the force was so great that she endured a nasty gash right between her eyes on the bridge of her nose. Now we all know that head wounds bleed like crazy. That, coupled with the fact that it was between her eyes made it too difficult to just close up with steri strips. Plus, the degree of scarring is a much bigger concern when it is on your face. So, they decided to go to the ER and get her stitched up. From what I hear, she was a real trooper and took the whole process like a champ. I knew she was tough little girl, but I had no idea she would be that tough.

I missed the initial (several) attempts for Matt to get a hold of me because I was outside with the youth at the church event. When I came inside, I checked my phone and was shocked to see 6 missed calls. Within minutes, I got a hold of Judy and learned what happened. I was upset that I wasn't there and that she was almost done at the ER as well. I headed that way, but about 10 minutes into the drive Matt called and let me know they were on their way home. I turned around and went home to wait for my little girl to get home. It was 10:30 when they arrived and I met them in the garage. I braced myself, not knowing what she was going to look like. He pulled her out of the car and with a big smile on her face she yelled "Mommy!" I couldn't believe her disposition! Considering it was 10:30 and she had just experienced the worst trauma of her little life, what did she have to smile about? But that's Rachel. Bubbly and living life to the full 100% of the time.

6 stitches and one day later and still no sign of pain. She has not whined once since she got home. She lets us put the ointment on without fussing and only occasionally touches it. I am proud of how brave she is. We go in a couple of days to have the stitches taken out and then we just have to keep sunscreen on it. They say there should be very little permanent scaring and it will continue to fade over time. She won't even remember it...but we will.