There is a reason why our girls aren't named "Grace"

In the space of 6 days, both of my darling, precious girls had stitches. Lest you think I am an irresponsible mother, I had nothing to do with either catastrophe, but I sure worried enough to make about 10 heads of gray hair (thank goodness I am blonde, eh?).

Lauren punctured her head (between the corner of her eye and the bridge of her nose) by tripping on our entry rug and hitting her face on the door hinge. I was sitting on the couch and was not at all surprised by the shriek of pain and anguish emanating from Lauren (not because I am an unfeeling mother but because it happens about every half hour). Being the loving mother that I am, I went to comfort her. Boy, did I get the surprise of my life when I leaned her back to kiss her bumped forehead, and she was covered in blood. Needless to say, the panic reared its ugly head (mine) and I completely lost it. Thank goodness for Melissa Basua and her cool head. She thought it would be better to comfort Lauren than start bellowing for Larry. I did the bellowing part (I knew those singing lessons would come in handy!). We went to the doctor only to wait and wait and then be referred to a plastic surgeon. I knew it would take longer, but I was glad for the specialist option. To make a long story less long (but obviously not short), several hours later, we had triumped, Lauren had her stitches (from a supercool plastic surgeon who happened to be in our last ward), and all was well in the world. Except that she can't be in the sun. Or swimming. Or smiling. (Just kidding on that last one)

I wanted to share a funny thing that happened. Lauren had "conscious sedation" for her procedure, and that basically means she looked completely stoned for the entire thing. The freakiest part was when she was coming out of it. She kept looking at us like she wasn't really seeing us. We were trying to get her to really wake up, and when the doctor came to check up on her, she looked at him, then looked at me and stuttered, "You.....are.....my....my.....mommy!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was so freakishly cute that I think I did both. Then we were talking about all the treats she would get the next day because she was such a trooper. She wanted ice cream and cookies and chips (what about the veggies and fruit, eh? this must come from Larry's sweet tooth!). We asked if anyone else would want cookies and she said, "Ha.....Ha....Ha" and I finished "Hadland?" She nodded. It was so adorable. Then she tried to say Sarah, but only ended up sounding like a snake. The whole sedation thing was pretty trippy to say the least!

The next day, you would not even have known that anything had happened to Lauren. She bounced out of bed about 7 am (after about 6 1/2 hours of sleep) and played vigorously all day long. What a survivor!

That was Wednesday. The next Tuesday (yep, only 6 days later), I was getting a little too much help from Sarah unloading the sharp knives from the dishwasher. I commanded Hadland to take her into the other room and do whatever he had to do to keep her happy and out of the kitchen. The next thing I know Sarah is crying in the other room, but I was expecting that--she doesn't really like to "hang out" with Hadland. I got the dishwasher unloaded, and by that time all was calm on the "kid" front. I went in search of Sarah, found her, and I saw that her shirt was covered in blood. I checked her nose, but she was clear. As I picked her up, I noticed that Hadland's shirt had blood on it as well. I checked Sarah out only to find her hair matted with blood right above her ear. I ran downstairs to consult (translation--freak out) with Larry, and then headed to the doctor yet again. They got me right in, took a look at Sarah, then pronounced that she'd be getting some stitches as well. I don't think they recognized me from the week before, but I was on pins and needles that someone would figure out that this wasn't the first time in June we'd been in for head wounds.

The Lord was certainly on my side that day because Sarah ended up sleeping through the entire stitching process (11 stitches, too). When they were cleaning her up after it was all over, she started to stir. What a tender mercy!!!! Now, I won't subject you to the horror that was the "taking out" of the stitches. I was just grateful that the "putting in" was pretty painless (no pun intended :)

All in all, we have the stitches out, we've gone swimming, and we seem to be healing pretty well. It is a bit of a chore to keep a hat on Lauren's head in the sun. When we swam yesterday, however, she was a champ and kept it on even though it was soaking wet. Hopefully there will be nothing noticeable on her face to remind us of this memorable summer, but if there is, it sure will make a great story!