The hardest part about being a mom....

is seeing your kids in pain. I hate watching the tears stream down their face when they get hurt, or even worse, when feelings get hurt by a friend.

Yesterday, it was raining...again...and really started to pour when we pulled into the parking lot of our apartment complex. We had just picked Chelsea up from preschool. I told the kids to hurry inside so we wouldn't get too wet. (I never carry an umbrella. I think they're so much more of a hassle than they are worth!) Chelsea had her hands in her pockets to stay warm. She didn't quite pick her foot up high enough when stepping over the curb and face planted in the dirt. It was a scary sight, so I quickly picked her up but relaxed a little when she had no scrapes...just a little bit of a muddy face.

Chelsea has had a history of what they call "Breath-holding-spells". It usually happens when she gets hurt really bad, or when she's really tired and sensitive. She'll start crying so hard that she doesn't breathe, then kind of go into little seizures and then pass out cold. They used to happen quite frequently when she was 2, but she hasn't had them for a long time. After the fall, she started crying pretty hard, but she was breathing, so I thought she was okay. My hands were full of paintings she had done from preschool, so I tried to quickly open the door to our apartment. But, I wasn't fast enough.

The image of her passing out (hands still in her pockets) and face planting, again, this time on concrete, goes over and over in my mind. When I picked her up and saw blood, I knew we were had problems.
She scraped up the side of her face pretty good, chipped 3 of her teeth and really scratched up her gums. At first I thought she's lost a tooth with all the blood coming out of her mouth. We cleaned her up and then I just held her on the couch while we watched a movie. It wasn't until she started saying she was sleepy that I thought about calling the doctor. She normally gets really tired after these spells, but I was worried about a concussion.

So, we drove a half hour to the doctor (amazingly, traffic was awesome...right on the worst stretch of highway, in the middle of rush hour) and Dr. Palmer checked her out. When we were in the waiting room, and she was playing with all the toys, I knew she was okay...but somehow I still needed the reassurance from a Doctor. He had her do all sorts of tests, like alternating fingers touching her nose, and looking into lights, etc. I actually laughed when he wanted her to walk with one foot in front of the other, with the toe of one foot touching the heel of the other. When he said "Chelsea, can you do heel toe walking for me?" she jumped right up in her overly sized rain boots and started doing her tap dance step where you make two distinct tapping sounds with your heel and toe. It was excellent tap heel-toes, but totaly not what the doctor wanted. She was even chanting "Heel-toe! Heel-toe!" with her hands on her waste.

Dan was finally home when we got back. Lucky for us, he's a dentist! :) He checked out her teeth. He says we'll have to watch them for a few days to see if the nerves were damaged, but he thinks she'll be okay. Maybe she'll get a grey tooth like I did when I was little! :)

She was very brave through the whole ordeal and even gave me a smile. The Doctor was very impressed when he was cleaning the wound and putting ointment on it that she didn't even cry or put up a fuss. I love my beautiful girl and hope this is the worst we ever have to see her go through. :)