Ballet and the Emergency Room

A little foreshadowing: The night started out great, but we were in for a real adventure.

It was C's night to shine. She was such a good girl while I did her hair and put on some "stage make-up" which was nothing more than 8 lbs of blush and a little lipstick. She looked so precious. She HATES when I do her hair, but it looks so cute. Here is her "princess" pose:


Her recital was held at the local high school auditorium. This picture was taken in the middle of her dance routine. C is the youngest one in her class and she did awesome. She knew her entire routine by heart. It was so fun to watch.


This video is the last couple seconds of her dance. C was singing her heart out. It was funny.

Here is she after the recital. Mimi bought her flowers. She was so thrilled. She loves when all the attention is focused on her.

This has got to be one of my most very favorite pictures ever. C and her Dad look so cute together. J was super proud of his little ballerina.

Here is C with her Mimi. C had quite the cheering section. All her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and even a few friends came to see her.



After making sure we took advantage of all the photo opportunities, we left. It was around 8:00 and I ready to get home and get the kids bathed and into bed. The whole recital excitement was a bit much for F. He was complaining to anyone that would listen. So, there we are walking out of the auditorium, down the cement stairs and to our car. J was holding F and the camera. I was holding my purse, C's backpack and her flowers. C was holding this cool little glow toy thing that came in her flower bouquet. I was about half way down the stairs when J started yelling at C. I just heard J calling her name, really frantically. I turned around just in time to see my little girl somersault down the cement stairs, hitting her face on every one until she hit the bottom step. I dropped everything I was holding and picked her up. She was a bloody mess. Her face was covered in dirt and blood and she was SCREAMING. I carried her over to some grass to assess the damage. As far as I could tell the worst of it was on the bridge of her nose. She was so upset. By the time I got her to the car, her nose was huge. It was swelling up so fast. I told J that I thought we should take her to the ER to make sure her nose wasn't broken. We buckled her in and headed for the hospital.

Apparently, it was a great night to break things because the ER was packed. They made us wait for about an hour or so until they had a bed open up. Once we were in the exam room, C really started to cheer up. She started to act like nothing was wrong and when I touched her nose, she didn't flinch or even say "ow."

By this time it was almost 10:00pm. I took F home to put him to bed and left J with C at the hospital. They finally got home around 10:30. Prognosis? The nose is not broken - just banged up pretty good. The doc said to watch her closely and look for personality changes which would signify a concussion. Well, C was totally hyper, a little bossy and really goofy - so 100% her normal self. Here are some pics of her face. You can't really tell in this pic - but she has this huge goose egg right in the middle of her forehead, underneath her bangs. The right side of her face is all scratched and then her poor nose.

This is C making her super sad face. She is so goofy.


We went to Mimi's house this morning to show her C's owies. Mimi said she looked like pippy long-stocking with her hair in pigtails. I said, no, she looks like the love child of pippy long-stocking and rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

Anyway - moral of the story? Even if you think your kid can walk down the stairs w/o help - hold their hand!!!!!!!!!!