er adventures and kindergarten jumpstart

i mentioned in my last post that azalea had a little mishap on sunday night that landed her in the er. the kids were on the couch watching a show, and i was on the computer. all of a sudden i heard a thud and a loud scream. azalea had rolled off the couch (she says ashford pushed her, but we didn't see) and hit her head on the corner of the ottoman. she was holding the back of her head, screaming and crying. thatcher picked her up to comfort her. first we assumed she just bumped it, but then we saw the blood trickling through her fingers. she saw the blood and started freaking out even more! i could see the look of panic in thatcher's eyes as he rushed her into the bathroom and grabbed some towels. i remember someone telling me years ago that head wounds always bleed really bad even if they are minor injuries and i'm so glad i know that. i am generally not good at staying calm during moments like these, but somehow i managed to keep completely calm. i truly felt like my dad was with me at that moment because he was always so calm in moments of stress (thanks to being a firefighter for almost 30 years). thatcher was able to find the wound underneath her hair and it was definitely a big laceration. we kept towels on it for a few minutes to slow the bleeding and once it had mostly stopped, he carried her out to the car to go to the children's hospital to see if she needed stitches. 

what i haven't mentioned yet is that this all happened 10 minutes before kelli, viv, and colleen were supposed to be arriving to go out for dinner. awesome timing, right? ;) i let them know that it would just be me and ashford joining them. i knew azalea was in great hands between thatcher and the doctors and she was barely bleeding when they left. so, we did manage to have a nice, relaxing dinner out. 

luckily thatcher and azalea did not have to be at the er for too long. they looked at her head and said we did the right thing by bringing her in. they said they would need to do a "hair tie" where they use a few strands of hair from either side of the wound to tie a knot over it and then glue the skin back together. cool huh?! as with every experience we've had at a children's hospital, they treated azalea so well. she got to play with an ipad and they made her feel so comfortable in a scary situation. she actually thought it was fun there! ha. i suppose it didn't hurt that afterward thatcher took her anywhere she wanted for dinner (chipotle) followed by ice cream for dessert. here are a couple (pitiful) pictures of the experience: 

i'm so glad she is okay!

the next morning she was off to kindergarten jump start! it's a week-long program from 9-12 every day to get incoming kindergartens familiar with their new school, the teachers, and the other students. it's a really great setup and azalea has been enjoying it a lot! it's so fun to see her in this new environment and i think she is really going to like kindergarten. i just wish she didn't have to wait 2 weeks after this for her first day. but i'm sure it'll come soon enough! i cannot say enough good things about the kindergarten teachers and the principal at her school. they are so enthusiastic, so caring, so wonderful. i can't wait to see what this year has in store for her. 

after a july/august packed with visitors, we have a break now for the next month, which will be nice as we adjust to a new fall routine.