John Deere Black & Blue

.....that's been the color around here as of late. Not John Deere Green like the song says. Not even on a hot summer night. In fact, it was a very rainy, stormy Wednesday and I'd just hung up the phone telling my sister that I had no intention of going anywhere with two babies in the driving rain.

Wrong.

My plans were very much changed, thanks to a very large, 5 or 6 pound metal hay baler, a two year old, a six month old, and a pack & play. If you're thinking this is a bad combination, well, you are so very right! A really bad combination indeed!

My sister had just called to say that she was coming by to visit for a while and like any self respecting southern woman I had to do some tidying up in the guest bathroom before she arrived. I laid Lilah down on her back in the Pack & play so she would be "safe" from Rambo who was playing nearby, and went to clean the bathroom which is a total of maybe 10 steps away.

No more than 2 minutes go by before I hear the most horrible scream/cry! (It was so loud I wasn't even sure which kid it was!) I stepped around the corner to see Carter peeking (and looking incredibly scared) over the rail at Lilah who was lying there screaming with a big metal hay baler lying right beside her head and two very big knots already starting to come up on her forehead!

I barely had her picked up before I had my cell phone in hand and was calling the pediatricians office (which is programmed in my phone, I may not have Poison Control programmed, but Dr. Jeannie is there!

They asked a bunch of questions and told me to bring her in immediately. I hung up and called my sister to see how far away she was, and asked her to go with me since at this point it was painfully obvious to me, her, Carter, probably Lilah and any neighbors within a 2 mile radius, that Mom had lost any and all sense by the way she was running around and screaming in a state of panic.

People, Carter did not so much as COUGH until he was 18 months old! He did have the little driving off the brick steps incident, but he didn't look like this after! I was not at all prepared to be carting my 6 month old to the hospital with head injuries!

So Crystal gets there within minutes and helps me load everything up, because I'm still running around like an idiot, and she asks me if I want her to drive......I tell her no, I'm too nervous for you to drive! (what???) She obliges me, hopefully praying for all our lives, and gets in the backseat where I tell her to keep Lilah awake at all costs. She did a great job! Lilah was screaming her little head off all the way there. Partly due to her injury, but she was also plenty ticked off at her Aunt Crystal for keeping her awake via wet wipes on the face, neck, and eventually even her poor little feet. She wanted to sleep so badly!

Remember I told you it was raining? It was really raining hard! We get almost to Chatt. and as we are passing the last exit before you go around the river we pass at DOT truck with a flashing sign that says "CRASH AHEAD". I can see the traffic starting to back up just ahead of me....it was too foggy to see any further! So, I switch to the slow lane, get over onto the entrance ramp to the interstate and back all the way down the entrance ramp!

We take the road over the mountain, then the streets downtown, and just as we are about to enter the tunnels at the ridge, there is another traffic tie up. Well, by this time, I'm getting scared. It's been almost an hour and I've had it with these people who insist on slowing down and getting in my way, and heaven forbid stopping for traffic in the rain while I am trying to get my baby to the xray machine!!!! I try merging into traffic and this woman would not let me merge. At least she wasn't planning to let me merge.

But I played the I am driving a bigger vehicle than you and I am blowing my horn and flashing my lights at you like a desperate crazy person and if you don't stop I am about to run your car right off the side of this ridge card.....and, well, she let me merge. Thanks lady.

Anyway, we finally make it there and I leave sis and Carter to get out of the car while I dash inside with Lilah. They are waiting for me when I walk in....no waiting! I ADORE THEM! They do a quick neurological assessment then xrays and within mere minutes tell me that there is no skull fracture, and if anything just a very minor concussion, and not to worry unless she starts puking. The Dr told me that I should expect to see some very nasty bruising in the front and back (the hay baler opens up so it got both front and back of her head) of her little head over the next couple of weeks.

Whew! Praise the Lord!!

Would you believe that by Saturday the bruising was all but gone? That girl has got one hard little head! Other than the ride to the doc, she cried (screamed) when she woke up in the nursery at church that night and I wasn't in there with her, but that's all! She played and cooed all the way home, so I thought she was good to go to church that night. (I know! I'll be sending in this post as an entry to the mother of the year contest....along with all the others.)

Anyway, that hay baler is still laying on top of the dryer where I put it over a week ago. Carter knows where it is and hasn't asked for it once. It's one of his very favorite toys, but he was terrified that he'd hurt "my wiwah" with it. After everything settled down he said, "Mom, I put the hay baler in the gate." He was putting his baler, and probably next his tractor in the pack and play and was about to climb in there with Lilah to play in the "gate". Poor thing, he sure didn't mean to hurt her!

...and on a completely different note, one more thing before I sign off for tonight. Our local high school played their most fierce rival tonight. No one in town wants to miss this game because you can always count on there being some "drama" involved. Tonight was no exception! The stands were packed, the crowds were cheering (and screaming and hollering), my two little hornets were dressed in their adorable hornet gear (not that you could see it under their coats and blankets but you know Carter does like to pick his own duds these days!) and best of all.....

.........the hornets beat the bisons 21-8!

Just had to get that in there, you know, in case a bison happens by :)