This is what Leo does when you tell him to smile for the camera. 
This is what happens at the end of nap time. We snuggle down. 
Pretty ordinary day, wouldn't you say? It was. And it's ordinary for Leo, Serafina and I to get in the shower together after dinner. We do it about three or four times a week. Everyone has fun and everyone gets clean. But tonight things didn't go the usual, ordinary way. Serafina slipped, which she has done before but this time she bumped her head on the edge of the shower basin. She cried and when I picked her up, I immediately smelled blood. Then I saw it, mixing with water, streaming down her back. Everyone out of the shower as calmly as possible. I could see she was bleeding from the back of her head, but with all her wet hair, it was hard to tell what was going on. Thankfully, Tom came home just a few minutes later. We all greeted him naked at the front door and he knew things were out of the ordinary. Tom took a look and confirmed what I suspected. So I got myself dressed and he got Serafina dressed. He put her in one of Leo's shirts because it buttoned-up and he didn't want to have to pull something over her head. The drive to urgent care is always feels so long. Once we were there, she was seen quickly and the doctor said she would probably just need two staples (they are faster to put in than stitches). The wound had to be irrigated, and poor Serafina screamed and squirmed as the nurse flushed it with syringe after syringe of saline. Then she need to have gauze soaked in numbing medicine pressed on the wound for 20 minutes. The nurse taped it to her head while I nursed her to calm her down after the irrigation trauma. Once again, I am so thankful I still breastfeed. The tape lasted about two minutes before it fell off. I suggested they wrap her whole head to keep it in place. The doctor and nurse looked doubtful that she wouldn't just pull it right off, but I assured them this is a kid who loves to wear her bike helmet, various hats and headbands around the house and we should give it a shot. So we did. And she happily ate her yogurt snacks and wandered around the exam room with her fashionable head wound bandage and brother's shirt.
Doesn't she look cheerful?
She did really well during the 20 minute wait. In order to get the staples in, the nurse and I had to swaddle her in sheet and hold her down with all our might as she screamed and thrashed. But the doctor managed to place two little staples and close the wound. It wasn't very long, but it was deep. Now we just have to keep it dry, so no hair washing. We are old pros at having a dirty kid since the whole cast situation. And I think part of what was difficult about tonight was how it brought back so many memories and emotions from the last urgent care visit with the broken leg. The nice thing about this injury is it's completely covered by her hair (they didn't have to shave or cut it at all), so no one will know about it unless I discuss it. The cast certainly wasn't like that and I had to answer questions from anybody and everybody. Plus, the staples only have to stay in for seven days. We'll be in Seal Beach in seven days, but we have an appointment to have them removed on Sunday after we get back. Thankful, she never lost consciousness or vomited. The doctor saw her walking around and eating and felt she was just fine except for the scalp wound so we are not really worried about a "head injury." It was tough to see my daughter go through all that and see just how deep that wound was, but she's going to recover from this too and have no memory of it (because she's young, not because it was knocked out of her). I'd just like to stay away from that urgent care for a while.
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