Neva's birthday...the start of a very strange week

We had the pleasure of celebrating our dear little friend, Neva last weekend for her second birthday. This was all before the horrible heat wave. Seriously, folks, it was 107 in Portland, Oregon. Not right.

On Tuesday we went to a friend's house to get cooled off in her air conditioning and Dalia found some steep attic steps when I wasn't looking. She typically would be able to get up or down from stairs, but these were really steep/small steps. I went to investigate her whimpering and calling for help just as she fell hard down the steps and onto her head. While I am feeling like I wasn't there for her, she insists that I caught her (tear). Needless to say, we had our first experience with the paramedics. We didn't have them transport us, but we did take a trip to the emergency room to make sure the gigantic bump on her head (like the size of my hand) wasn't a sign of something much more serious, like a skull fracture. We opted out on the CT scan (yet another in a long line of too many choices for parents these days - apparently, CT scans can cause as much trouble as a skull fracture in kids this age due to radiation), and brought her home to wake her up every two hours that night to be sure she was okay. Dalia was so brave. She was such a big girl letting the nurses take her blood pressure, pulse and temperature. She had fun looking at the fish painted on the walls in the hospital room and when we left it was dark so she got to see the stars, which never happens anymore. We got a round of "Tinkle, Tinkle, witto, stow" out of her.

Sadly, Mark was out of town for this whole event (thanks, Mom for filling in)! But, luckily for us he was in an air conditioned hotel room just an hour and forty-five minutes away, so the next day as the heat rose to at least 85 in our very cool basement, Dalia and I hit the road sleep deprived, but glad to get away! I'm still watching her even though they said I could stop worrying. It was such an intense week/experience, I can't yet tell which had more traumatic impact, the heat or her fall. I'm glad to have reunited with Mark to care for her and even more glad to have had the respite of a cool, comfortable hotel room. We found an awesome park one morning before it got hot and loved playing in the pool (much less crowded than our neighborhood pool). Dalia showed us that she has her father's spatial orientation as she always knew which way to go out of the elevator. Seriously, I never know which way I'm going out of an elevator.

A side note about this subject: on the way to the hospital we drove on the freeway (something we rarely do unless we are going to visit Amy and Archer) and she started talking about Amy, thinking that's where we were going. I'm amazed. Anyway, she complains about her head hurting mostly in the morning, but seems to be unphased by the whole thing. Kids are remarkable. I could learn a lot about letting go from her.

It is a cool 78 in our house this morning. Even though it's going to be in the 90's today, I think we're almost out of the "event" that rivals Arctic Blast 2008.