dull is sometimes good

And I started today with such high hopes for an average dull normal day.  I did.  I was lying in bed, toasty and warm.  My H got up when his alarm went off (which never happens) and the kids also were stirring down the hall.  C arrived in our room dressed for the day, checked in and headed down to breakfast, and G arrived dressed as well... with a raging fever.  I could feel the heat radiating off him before my hand even made contact.  So here's what an amazing mother I am... (not really)...  H says, "if his fever is over 100, are you going to give him something?", to which I replied, "I can already tell you his fever is about 102, and yes.  Let me go check it with the thermometer first."  102*.  Damn.  I'm that good.

So, I give him his Motrin, set him up in my bed with a movie, a bottle of water and instructions to drink it all, and come downstairs to babysit all day.  I woke up with the urge to clean.  (WHICH NEVER HAPPENS) so I cleaned out the primary junk drawer (sadly we have more than 1) and started working around the kitchen.  Then around 9:30 the weather was finally warm enough to take the girls outside.  

Still in the mood to clean, I raked the backyard (all 12 sq. feet) and bagged the leaves.  Then I picked up the phone, which was on the deck, to call the pediatrician about G.  It's now almost 11:30.  Everyone's having a fun time playing together.  I'm watching B walk through the doorway from the garage to the backyard.  There's a small step, maybe 6 inches down to the walkway from the door to the deck steps... she's negotiated this step about 687 times in the past 3 months... and at this moment, the day which had been going so well, completely unwound.

B's shoes got "tangled" up on themselves... that is to say, her left foot got hung up behind her right foot.  She was holding a toy (as babies do) and she didn't drop it to catch herself as she fell that 6 inch drop onto the pavement... and landed on her face, mouth first.

As a scream erupted through her parted lips, blood exploded from her mouth.  It was instantly covering her, the sidewalk, me as I rushed her inside to throw an cold wet paper towel against it so I could inspect the damage.  Oh *($)!  Her front tooth is chipped and her mouth is a bloody mess.  I couldn't even see anything for more than 2 or 3 seconds between swipes with the cloth.  I picked up the phone, that i had discarded on the deck, and tried to dial my Pediatrician.  No dial tone.  As in.... Verizon wasn't sending a dial tone to my house.... as in...  no phone service.  I was moving a little slow.  Mentally that is.... in the meantime the world was moving at high speed.  I grabbed my cell and called my Pediatrician, who said hang up and call the dentist "and THEN call us back".  So I called the dentist's "tooth hotline" who patched me right through to "a knowledgeable tech" who talked me down and transfered me back to reception to make an apt for later...  all while B is FREAKING OUT at the top of her lungs.  She wouldn't allow me to put ice on it, so she crawled (blood trail, I'm not kidding) into the bathroom and hid "behind" the pedestal sink.  

Eventually, an hour later I was sitting on my couch, with sleeping B sitting on my lap with an ice pack resting against her mouth.  Barely touching it really.  The phone rings.  My Pediatric dentist office calling me back to remind me to check to see if B's on the policy.  Well F*&*(!  No, I didn't even think of that.  No that is not what I said.  Instead I think I mumbled something about thanks for thinking of that because I sure wasn't.  So I called the insurance company.  She's not on the policy.  Open enrollment starts on Monday.  The 27th.  We can add her after the 27th.  OH.  Um.  OK.  I guess that's why we have a flexible spending account.

Her tooth is "OK".  It might or might not fall out later.  Depends on how deep the trauma goes.

  // I can tell you how deep the trauma goes.  It's definitely a 2 glass of wine plus optional therapy from a trained counselor "trauma".  Oh, nerve trauma... right. // 

OK, so then he tells me the mouth isn't that bad, her gums are in "good shape" for the amount of face trauma he sees.  The worst of it came out of the nose.  The nose will take a few weeks to heal, but the Dentist thinks the mouth will be healed by next Monday or so.

And, it turned out only to cost $55.  (Mentally I was bracing for $200.  Now, do any of you have pets?  If this had happened to a dog, don't you bet a $200 bill would have come out of that vets office?  I'm just suspicious now about vets... that's all.  I didn't mean to get off track again.)

H is at the Pediatricians office right now.  Hopefully they'll be arriving home shortly with good news.  I just want to feed & bathe the kids, put them all to bed, and go to bed.  When I wake up tomorrow I want to have a nice normal day.  Did you hear that God?  Normal.  NORMAL.  No dr's, no dentists, no emergency hotline calls, no insurance company calls... nothing.  Dull even.  Yes. Dull.  That's the goal.