The Day

It's now Thursday morning, the day after "The Day." You won't believe what I am about to write, so let me begin by stealing Dave Barry's line, "and I am not making this up!" Honest!

So, yesterday, we went to the zoo with our friends. On our way home, we saw a wreck literally right in front of us. I watched in horror as a truck went from the far left lane across my lane and then across the other 4 lanes of traffic, attempting not to miss his exit, I suppose. I pointed him out to the girls, who, by the way were being perfect, thank goodness - so I was really concentrating on my driving - , "Look at that guy, he's going to get somebody in a wreck." And sure enough he did.

On his last lane, he bumped a little white car which then started careening left across all 6 lanes of the freeway. By now, I had slowed down, watching it all and remembering how my daddy taught me to drive defensively (which basically to me means, "See that car, what would you do if he was going to run into you?") So now, this little car is crossing in front of me and hits the car in the lane to the left of me. This is a red jeep or something. Those 2 cars are sliding down the freeway against the rail right next to me. Of course I am really going slow now, and then the jeep starts going "up and down and up and down" in Kaylie's words. It rolled at least 2 and 1/2 times and landed in my lane on the roof. And while it's rolling, I am watching stuffed animals and a stroller come pouring out of the windows.

When I was sure all traffic was stopped, I told the girls to pray and not to be scared, we were perfectly safe, but I had to go see if I could help the baby in that car. I watched the mom crawl out of the passenger window and run around the car (to get her child) and I also saw 5 men running to her car to help and at least 2 people standing out of their cars on their cell phones. I picked up the stuffed animals and the stroller and started towards the car. One of the men came towards me to get the stroller. "Is the baby okay?" I asked. "Yes, he's fine."

Now, I'm almost bawling, but I continue on and give the boy his animals. He's standing with a chicken nugget in his hand by his mother who's on the phone. He was crying and I was trying hard not to. They were fine and suddenly I noticed my van sitting in the middle of a freeway that was now moving. And my girls are in there!!!

Deciding that they had plenty of help, I went back to move my van. I never found out how anyone else was.

We were really shaken, but grateful that the mother and baby were not hurt, and also grateful that we were not involved - as we certainly could have been! The girls wanted to call their daddy and tell him all about it. After he heard the story, he said when he got home, he would take us out to dinner and I didn't have to worry about getting anything ready. So, when he came home, we headed to Chik-fil-a. After eating, the girls were playing outside on their playground. When Mark and I came out to see them, I saw them and said, "Run to your daddy," which they did. Unfortunately, a boy was running the opposite direction and ran right into Kaylie, knocking her down into the window ledge - which has a very sharp metal edge. As I was holding her, I noticed the blood on her head and then saw the cut. It was about 1 inch long and was opened pretty bad (we thought).

So, we called our doctor's office (this was about 7 at night) and he sent us to the emergency room. On our way there, (and let me remind you I am NOT making this up), we got a flat tire. We could see the hospital and Mark thought we would just drive on it until I assured him that a few minutes wouldn't matter that much. I was keeping ice on it and she was crying, but not because it hurt. She was crying because she did not want to go to the hospital. At one point, she even tried to convince me, "my boo-boo is all better, Mommy."

Eventually we made it to the hospital. We were seen immediately and told that she would definately need staples (that's easier for wiggley kids, he said.) Then we waited a long time for them to take us back. They numbed the wound and the surrounding area with a blue liquid and wrapped up her head like a little indian girl. Then, we had to wait 30 minutes for it to get very numb.

While we were waiting, Tori and Kaylie played doctor/patient. Each taking turns at each role. It was fun watching Kaylie lying on the bed (which she didn't even do for the doctor) and Tori asking her what was wrong. Kaylie would tell the same story we did just minutes before and Tori would tell her the same diagnosis we had just heard. It was funny! Then, when it was Tori's turn to be the patient, Kaylie would ask her what's wrong and Tori would say, "I have pink eye." (She really does - she got it in California - that and an ear infection. She's all better, but still has to take her antibiotic, which she loves because it is bubblegum flavor.) So anyway, they would go through the same dialogue and we were amazed to see the accuracy of their diagnoses and treatments!

Finally, the doctor came in (actually a nurse practitioner, but we didn't care, he was great with Kaylie) and won her over. Then he told us we would have to hold her down and she would probably scream and kick, because all kids did, even the calm ones. He asked if she was a calm one. We laughed.

So, I sat on the bed and held her in my lap. Mark held her hand and I wrapped my arms around her and watched. (Why did I do that?) He had to push down on her head with the stapler and that is the part that scared her and hurt her a little. The wound was numb, so she wasn't feeling that, but the pressure and her nervousness made her cry. She did not scream or kick, or even move for that matter. She just whimpered. We were so proud of her for being so brave! When I told her how brave she was, she said "No I wasn't, I cried." I tried to convince her that even brave girls cry a little and she certainly was brave!

We got home at 9:30 and The Day was finally over. I had to wake her at 3am, per doctor's instructions. That was a hard task. I finally sat her up and she said, "I want to go to sleep." So I asked her her name and she replied "Kaylie." Then I asked her my name and as sarcastically as she could, she said "Carla." So I tucked her in and went to bed in peace!

Now, she is tap-dancing in the front hall with Tori and asking me to play the piano for them, so I must go......