I AM ART

Well, at long last, here is me in my fancy shmancy

I AM ART shirt

(which I am totally in love with as you can tell!!!)

On a side note....yesterday was an eventful day....after a busy morning, followed by a tired afternoon, evening started rolling in....the girls were playing around the house, Richie called to say he was on his way home and I was in the living room when I heard a crash, a bang, a thud and the tears of a tiny girl in pain....I jumped up and ran into the hall to find Bella escaping the scene of the crime and Mia crumpled up on the floor crying in pain. I kissed her little red knees but couldn't really figure out where she had hurt herself until, moments later, a huge, egg-shaped lump swelled up on her forehead. It LITERALLY swelled up before my eyes way bigger than her little fist and let me tell you, I was one FREAKED out mama-cita.....I grabbed the teddybear-head-shaped-ice-pack (which I highly recommend for kids as well as adults - i use it more than they do - because it is ice-cold without the bite of those horribly cold icecubes thru the conventional paper towels on an injury).....

...so back to my tale of woe....

So as her poor little noggin is swelling up, I'm panicking and trying to hold a 30 lb. kid in my arms, apply the icepack to her forehead as she is shrieking in pain (mostly from the ice pack for some reason....she would stop crying once i took it off), and dialing the pediatrician....Of course, they have just closed down for the day and their answering machine says to call 9-1-1 in case of emergencies.

....Now I don't know if all moms go thru this internal dialog but I'm thinking that if I call 9-1-1, the ambulance will arrive, they will see me as a sterotypical overprotective mom, shake their heads and scold me for wasting their time, and then slap me with a huge bill for their trip to the house. But then I'm thinking the whole scenario of 'WHAT IF???'

What if she has a concussion? What if she is bleeding internally and I failed to do anything about it? WHAT IF WHAT IF WHAT IF WHAT IF?

So I dial 9-1-1 and try to explain why I am calling which I do totally apologetically and asking if I am overacting and trying not to sob into the phone and thinking oh-my-goodness-i-am-the-sterotypical-overprotective-mom-that-i-have-such-disdain-for....but what if my baby is dying??? HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME!!!!! Funny the kinds of moments that make you realize that pride and self-respect are completely overrated.

So they send in the troups....

And since we live at least half an hour from the closest town with an actual title of 'city', everyone that arrives on the scene from fire and rescue is volunteer. Let me tell you, they are the NICEST, KINDEST people and totally reassured me and checked out my little one carefully and related stories of their own kids falls and well, they were just sooo nice. An ambulance driving team arrived from Lewiston and they were just as nice. They told me it was good that I had called, evaluated her injuries, told me what to watch for in the upcoming hours and told me that if I felt like going to the emergency room for my own peace of mind to totally do it and not feel bad at all. What a great group of people!

Anyway, the swelling went down some (at first her skin was threatening to split open where her little head hit the corner of the hardwood door) and she now, not even 24 hours later, has a large purple lump on her forehead but is in good spirits and seems to be completely fine.

In fact, she was so excited at all the flashing lights and the ambulance that she didn't want me holding her because she wanted to jump down and go check them out! She is going thru this car and truck phase...Everything is either a "cruck" or a "choo-choo" and getting to check out the inside of the ambulance (they let her toddle around inside after they saw how excited she was over it) was the highlight of her year I think.

So her and her sister got to run around inside the ambulance, pressing levers and checking out the gurney and I managed not to burst into hysterics at the ambulance driver's suggestion that we run and get a camera to take a picture of them in the ambulance. Richie pulled out his camera phone which he previously had never used for picture taking purposes and tried to get some shots....At this point I'm like totally coming down off the adrenaline and picture taking is the LAST of my concerns. HEllo, I was afraid my baby was gonna die from internal bleeding and everyone is standing around joking and taking pictures because everything is fine and I'm still a basket case. Sheesh....

So anyway, that was my day yesterday.....Motherhood is totally boring....NOT.