Whew!

(Yes, this is the toughest toddler photo ever. The others just seemed sad to us.)

Okay, first thing's first. Dalia fell, again. This time she just tripped over her feet running into the kitchen to see what Daddy was doing. She tumbled into a metal kitchen cart and cut her eyebrow. After eating dinner and waiting for the on-call doc to call back, we decided to take her to ER (again). Though this time it was much less stressful. It was obvious what had happened and she didn't seem to be in much pain.

I was out teaching when it happened and Mark took Dalia to the resident mom on the block. She told him she thought Dalia would need stitches or at least some glue. After looking at the cut for about 10 seconds the doctor decided she needed 7 stitches. She actually came away with 8. She was absolutely amazing. They gave her some baby strength Valium, which indeed made her silly. It was cute albeit stressful to be giving our child drugs like that. But it helped her stay perfectly still and calm while the doc sewed her up. She thoroughly enjoyed sticking the stickers she got afterwards on our travel wipes container. In fact, I don't know if we've ever seen her "play" so intently and focused for such a long time. I'm not anxious to do any of that again, but it was another look into how well she (and I guess we) operate in stressful situations. I think Mark and I did a good job creating continuity between regular old life and what was happening. The most insane I got all night was trying to keep her away from a little boy in the ER waiting room who had been vomiting all day. I'd rather take the stitches than the GI infection for sure.


On to other things...before the drama we had a visitor or two. First, this most wonderful photo of Dalia reading with Amy and Archer prior to our friends from Chicago showing up. It's amazing to me how they suddenly just look big. Not babies anymore at all. This is so far my favorite photo of her with them. She loves them so much. Recently, she learned how to say "hang out" and whenever we're just sitting around she says, "hanging out with Amy and Archer?" When we went to the hospital last night she even asked if I was going to call Amy. She has a weirdly vivid memory of her last trip to ER.



Our dear friends Rachel, Adele and Richard came to visit. The pictures say it all. Though Dalia was ready for some quiet time when they left, we all had such a great time hangin' out.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, yes, Dalia does have a helmet that she does indeed like to wear. She put it on again today and I was in no hurry to remove it. She wore it for about an hour, indoors and out, and even on a visit to the neighbor's house. She puts it on backwards herself. If I can intervene I do, but really, why? She's so dang cute and silly.