On the second day of school...

...she fell off a hammock outside. And didn't calm down for 50 minutes. And was complaining of pain in her arm. And no one saw the fall... (quick look away on the part of the adult, we're not upset)... so a trip the e.r. was in order. I joined Kev and Caroline at the children's hospital after wrapping up a meeting, just in time to accompany them for x-rays. She was NOT happy about the x-rays. And apparently had not been happy with the initial manipulations done in triage. But as we waited in an e.r. room for word about what was next... she calmed down... and started using that arm again, bending it, reaching with it (this is her dominant arm). I thought for sure it couldn't be broken. Eventually someone said "The x-ray didn't show anything." Then someone else said later "Well, it didn't show a break, but it did show a lot of fluid on the elbow so we're going to splint her elbow, treat it like a break, until she can be seen by an orthopedist at the end of the week." She clearly had been in A LOT of pain, but I really had a hard time believing it was broken... especially when she'd put her full body weight on the wrist of that right arm without wincing... but, ah well, the orthopedist identified blood in the x-ray and suggested that was a sign of a break and casted it. She was totally unphased by the cast, save for using it as an excuse to resume loathing of bathtime.

Here's a self-portrait from our time waiting in the e.r. for word about what was up.


And here she is just after being splinted.


And in her dinosaur sling... she thought that was pretty great! At first, though getting her to leave it on at home was a bit of a challenge.


Because she was SO cooperative at the hospital we took her for a "special treat" (as she would say in her sweet little voice) afterwards. I took her to a bakery were there were all sorts of lovely chocolate delicacies. I thought for sure she'd pick a cupcake, but nope... she insisted on this... "lowfat chocolate decadence"... it was rather large... she was delighted.


We had a couple of special visitors shortly after this happened. First, before the cast, Katherine, a high school friend of Kev's, stopped by for an afternoon visit when she was in town.



Then a few days later she got her cast... she picked out the color... hot pink.


That night (Good Friday actually... penultimate Friday of the semester for me...) our good friends Matt and Jenn came down from Kentucky for dinner with us. Matt and Jenn are both musicians, but they also are experienced clowns. So they brought the makings for balloon animals to cheer the little patient. And she was thrilled with their offerings. We sure do love Matt and Jenn and are so glad that BOTH of them will be our (fairly nearby) neighbors so soon!


I was worried that the fall and break were going to turn Caroline off from her interest in school, but within three days of the accident she started asking "Are you going to drop me off? I want go to school. Drop me off." No hard feelings towards school whatsoever.