Fresh Eyes

We got our family pictures taken this weekend, which was a real highlight! I always like to wait until my babies are over six months to add them to family photos. That way, I feel like they look like themselves - at least for a little while.

 We found an itty-bitty frog during our shoot, which made for some fun pictures. The poor thing had a gimpy leg though, so we probably didn't help it out too much. :)

 The couple samples we got were great, although we have better ones that I can't download here yet. Ones where you can actually see Paul's face. :) Love everything else about this one though...

 Lydia, who is usually silly and smiley would not crack. We tried everything we could think of, but she remained stoic almost the entire time.

 Almost exactly twenty four hours after those pictures were taken, Nora burst in the house screaming. She had been playing outside with Benjamin and Peter, so I figured she must be tattling on them, that they probably sprayed her with the hose or something.

Now I will admit, Nora has been sort of going through a rough patch lately. It seems that immediately following her third birthday, she turned into a different creature. Instead of having a mild, sunny disposition all the time, she often throws wild fits if she can't have her way. And there is no talking her down or reasoning. So I love her, but admittedly often through gritted teeth. I'm working on it.
Anyways, I was sort of rolling my eyes as she came through the door. She likes to pick fights with them to elicit any sort of reaction. Paul came to her side and immediately called me over. I was not at all prepared for what I saw (Warning: if you have issues with blood, you should probably stop reading...).

She had smashed her finger in the old wooden front door as she was closing it on her way in. Her right pointer finger was severed below the nail bed, hanging by only a third of the finger's width. I don't even do well with loose teeth, so this was way beyond my ability to handle calmly. I think I screamed (Paul said he'd never heard that noise come out of me before), and after Paul put her finger back in place we rushed off to the emergency room. All the while, I was thinking my poor Nora would have a short pointer finger forever. I didn't think there was any way they could repair it. She was crying, but calmed down completely as I held her in the car. 

I stayed with her all four hours in the emergency room, holding her, rocking her, seeing her again with fresh eyes. My little girl who wants nothing more than to just cuddle and be held.

Paul headed back home with the boys when it looked like help wasn't coming right away, and my belated 30th birthday celebration was put on hold.

Mostly I could not get over how tough this girl was. She was calm the entire time we sat in that little emergency room, giggling at the sparkly x-ray gown I wore (her finger was in fact fractured at the tip), delighted by the stickers she got to have, patient as she sat through all of Toy Story and The Little Mermaid. I think she only cried when Lydia grabbed her finger, reopening the wound. I could have died...

The procedure was also hard for me to watch.  She had some agitated moments when her usually bright eyes went dull.  But she also had some playful moments thanks to the laughing gas. She kept saying "Hiiiii!" really slowly with a big grin on her face and once pointed at the plastic surgeon who was stitching her up and joked, "YOU smashed my finger." It was nice that she didn't have to be aware during it. I don't think she would have handled that part very well.

It turns out we knew our plastic surgeon from church. He walked in, and we both did a double take and laughed.

It's funny, for all the thought I put into our beautiful family pictures, these other pictures of Nora will always mean just as much to me, if not more. As hard as it is to go through these things as parents, it's probably also a blessing. We come away with deeper love and empathy, and we see what our kids are made of. In Nora's case, it's sugar and spice with a hint of nails. She's just that tough.