Growing WarriorsJust your typical family…

Every year Eric’s company has their annual picnic at the Worlds of Fun amusement park. The girls look forward to this each and every year with great anticipation, and this year was no exception. We have a picture on our fridge of the first time Allison and Meredith rode the Viking Voyager – the log ride type of roller coaster, where you all sit in a big log and get splashed as you go up and down hills and around curves. Allison and Meredith have ridden it every time we’ve gone to the picnic. But not Lydia. This year, she vowed that she was going to get on this ride too. All through the line, she was nervous, and kept thinking about backing out. Right up until our boat started moving, she was still considering changing her mind…until it was too late:

Should I feel bad for finding these pictures to be hilarious??

After it was over, she claimed that she had a lot of fun on this ride. I’m not sure that the evidence supports this claim

Yes, you read that right – on Friday we had our second ever ER visit. Meredith was injured in a moonwalk bouncer when another child accidentally landed on her. She has a laceration to the face – nothing too major – right above her mouth. The cut was clean and straight, and we aren’t sure what cut her. Maybe a fingernail or some jewelry? Not sure at all…but it was a deep and freakish cut. The dr at urgent care said stitches and sent us to the ER, saying they would do a better job of it with less pain and less chance of scarring, the intake dr at the ER said stitches and got the numbing stuff ready, but when it came down to it, the treating physician decided to go with the glue, so I’m hoping for the best. No swimming or sports for 5 days (ugh!) – so she is missing a couple of games and a practice on softball – and my smiley talkative girl had to refrain from smiling for 24hrs and limit her talking. She is still limiting her smiles and talking because she said it hurts some when she does those things. Its a bit unsettling to see her because she ALWAYS has a smile plastered on her face, but now when I look at her, she is stone-faced…I keep wanting to ask her what’s wrong, but then I remember that it hurts to use her smile muscles. Poor girl.

So 20+ years of parenting, four children, and only 2 ER visits..not too bad, huh? Although both ER visits were for Meredith (she got into her dad’s allergy medicine when she was a toddler) – not sure what that says about my middle child and the parenting of said middle child.

Taken earlier today