Are you Freaking KIDDING ME??

It was 11:30 p.m.

I was downstairs.

Doing what I always do at night...clean up all the crap we got out during the day.

When I hear a loud thud.

I knew what it was.  

This has happened before (click here to see how it happened before!)

So I know that sound well.

Then there is the scream.

I race up the stairs to find Claire on the floor next to the bed.

I do a quick scan of her head (sadly, I always immediately perform this step...too often I find blood).

And there it is...

Her right eyebrow split wide open.

Just a few months ago, she split her left one open (click here to see how her left one split open!)

Called Jordan.

Called my father-in-law. (to sit at the house while Anya slept.)

Went to the ER.

AGAIN.

(Except this time, our insurance is worse, so it cost $50 more...)

*LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG SIGH*

Here is is, pre-stitches.  YIKES!!!  (Like the wad of gum in her cheek?  We were running out of ideas on keeping ourselves entertained.  She LOVED watching us blow bubbles and especially when Jordan popped one on his face, all over his "scratchies!" (whiskers).  She just laughed and laughed).

The upside is:  Claire was an absolute angel.

The downside is:  It was so bad, a plastic surgeon had to be called.

The upside is:  Claire was really brave.

The downside is:  She had to have like 6 shots of the numbing solution in her "owie"

The upside is:  She was very numb.

The downside is:  We were there for 5 hours.

The upside is:  HOLY COW.  I'm always calling the plastic surgeon.  He was amazing!!  He did a running stitch including some dissolvable stitches inside and an amazing blind stitch on the outside. (I asked him if he'd blind stitch my quilt bindings from now on)

The downside is:  Stitches will be in for 3 weeks or more.  We have family pictures in two.  Good thing for Photoshop!!
The upside is:  Claire held so still, closing her eyes, she was acting more like she was getting a spa treatment done than getting stitches applied.
The downside is:  Claire was wearing cow PJ's that are like 10 sizes too small and her hair looked like a grease pit since she'd put lotion in it earlier.
The upside is:  Nobody cared.  (except for me lol)

The downside is:  We felt like really horrible parents throughout.  STUPID nightstand!!!

The upside is:  They didn't call in Child Protective Services to handcuff and haul us away...

The downside is:  The nurse actually ASKED if we had given her some kind of sedative, she was so calm! LOL! (might have to do with this being her 4th time getting stitches...it's old hat around here)

The upside is:  They were stitching up her eyebrow...not her eyeBALL.  This could all have been worse.

All in all, a very eventful evening.  She was a trooper, and has since had fun pretend stitching up her cousin, Lauren, and Mommy and Daddy too, of course.

Some more pictures from Jordan's phone:

With the numbing stuff on it.  She was pretty happy :)

And was excited to have a bracelet on her leg!

A little blurry.  She was moving waaay too much.  The plastic surgeon put Iodine all over that side of her face, but then removed it after he was done.  But he put some on her nose so that when she'd look in the mirror for the first time, she'd look at that and not be too shocked over the stitches (let's be honest, this girl wouldn't be...).  Thought that was cute!  He was an old man that was so amazing at his job.  It is impeccable!  The steri strips are above her eyebrow because they are holding the dissolvable and the regular stitch ends so that he wouldn't pull the skin by tying them.

The doctor had me tell her a couple of princess stories while he did the stitching.  The nurse was so funny.  She was like, "You need to publish those!"  I was like, seriously.  Dumbest "plots" known to man.  Haha! I'm no JK Rowling!  But I guess good enough for a 2 year old.  The doctor actually did tell us that he could tell that we are very good parents and that we are very very good with her.  I thought that was nice.  Much to our expecting-to-be-chastened surprise that night :)