After a couple of hours outside, they came in to warm up with some hot cocoa. Around lunch time, it finally started snowing. There wasn't much on the ground, but it was enough to make these kids giddy, so back outside they went.
About a half hour later, I heard screaming, the kind of screaming that means something very bad has just happened. I looked out the window and saw blood gushing from Aubrey's mouth. Her mouth and a friend's head had collided and split open her lip and mouth, mostly on the inside. It looked pretty bad, so I called the doctor and then called Mom. (Greg was in Corvallis for the day.) The roads were mostly drivable but icy in spots, and more freezing rain was expected, so my mom came and picked Aubrey and I up and drove us to the doctor's office, and Kari got her first longer sibling babysitting experience, with a cell phone handy and many neighbors around to call on, if needed. The doctor took a quick look at Aubrey and determined we needed to go to the ER. It was more than they could handle at their office. So, we drove to the ER, with Aubrey in the backseat crying and voicing her displeasure at having to get stitches (her last set was just two months ago). "I CAN'T go to the hospital! I WON'T get stitches! I can't DO this!" But she did. I was thankful my mom was there, as I felt the nausea and lightheadedness coming on as they were stitching Aubrey up. Aubrey did great, once it all got started. They didn't end up giving her a Novocain shot. They just used numbing gel! She didn't seem to feel the first stitch, but she felt the second one. Thankfully, it was over pretty quickly--just two stitches.
We had only been home about an hour, and I had just taken Aubrey's photo to document what a good job the doctor had done, as well as the photo below of the deck with some evidence of the trauma) when Aubrey said, "Uh-oh, it came out," and showed me the thread she had just pulled out. Her lip puffed up and started bleeding again, and I could see where she had pulled out the outer stitch. Oh.my.goodness. I was MAD! It was not my finest mom moment. I yelled and ranted and was just so frustrated! (I did apologize later.) I called the ER, then called my mom (again), and we went back in to see if it needed to be re-stitched. The doctor decided it would be ok to leave it. He said it would take a little longer to heal but should eventually look just fine. The other stitch was still holding pretty well, well enough anyway. Aubrey was relieved, and I was relieved when the doctor said he would try to keep us from getting charged for that second visit. (The doctor we'd seen the first time had left for the day, so we saw a different one the second time.) We'll see what kind of bill we end up getting.
It was just one long day. As I was telling Greg all my woes that evening once he got back safely from Corvallis (it was getting very icy outside by then), I looked down at my hand and noticed my wedding ring was missing one of the little diamonds on the side. That opened the tear floodgates that I'd held back all day. It was just one of those days, an Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day kind of day. I just needed to go to bed. So I did.
The next morning, our street, yard, and driveway were all a sheet of ice. This was Aubrey's bedroom window. She woke up puffy-lipped but happy. The kids had a two-hour delay for school because of the ice, so we had a nice, slow morning and an uneventful Friday. Oh, and on Saturday, I took my ring to The Shane Company in Tigard, where we bought it, and they are replacing the little diamond and fixing my ring for FREE! I'm so happy! Aubrey's lip is looking better and better each day, too. :) Hopefully, we can be injury free for a while now.
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