So, yesterday was interesting...As I was pulling dinner out of the oven last night, around 7:0o, Olivia and Opie were laying on the floor by my feet. All of sudden, I heard some movement, and Opie ran out of the room while Liv started screaming and crying. I immediately scooped her up and realized that her lip was bleeding, badly. I really believe that they were laying on the ground and that she grabbed his tail, which she has done several times in the last couple of days and really hurt him at one point, and as he was attempting to get away and run, he caught her with his paw. Anyways, I got her on top of the counter, wet a paper towel, and started wiping the blood away to discover that the skin above her lip and the lip itself were somewhat gaping open. I pulled a popsicle out of the freezer in an attempt to get something cold on the area, and as soon as she saw that popsicle, she was fine, which is totally Olivia. I, however, was shaking like a leaf; that being said, it was just the two of us, so I had to stay calm. I also noticed scratches above her eye, going down across her nose; however, these weren't even a comparison in
depth to the one on her lip (the picture to the left was taken once we got home from the hospital, but it shows the scratches across her eye and nose). I called the pediatrician and left a message to receive a callback from the after-hours service. Then I began calling Steve and my mom, yet neither of them were answering any of their phones. I wasn't sure if I was overreacting as a mom or if I really needed to run her to the emergency room, so I called Allison Wheeler and asked if I could come down to their house so that she and Ben could take a look for me: Thank you, Wheelers; it is good to know that you all are here if I need you while Steve is away. I threw Liv's dinner in a Tupperware, turned off the oven, fixed a cup of milk and a cup of juice, grabbed a few books, grabbed Pooh, and headed out the door. As I was gathering everything together, Opie was cowering under the table, so I did yell at him horribly. He knew that he had messed up before I even looked at him. At this point, Olivia was acting like nothing had happened, and she was just excited to put on her shoes and go somewhere. Before I got to Allison's, the o
n-call nurse called back and suggested that I head to the hospital because of where the wound was located. I bypassed Allison's, and we were off to Northside Forsyth; we sang the whole way there to keep both of us calm. At this point, I still had not gotten a hold of Steve. The wait in the ER was ridiculous, and the lady at the front desk was kind enough to get a doctor's assistant to look at Liv and advise us on the severity before checking us in. Because the cu
t went through her lip line, he did suggest that we stay and see a doctor, which we did, of course. Oh, and we finally got a hold of Steve, who was a bit of a wreck not knowing what was going on. I again was totally worried about her touching anything due to all of the sick people, but Olivia acted like she didn't have a care in the world. There was a boy, about 8 or so, sitting across from us, and Liv started waving frantically, saying, "Hi", and blowing kisses; darn it, she is going to flirt even with a bleeding lip while sitting in the emergency room. He was sweet and waved back at her; although, he had fallen off of his skateboard, hit his head, and was feeling a bit woozy. Liv was also excited about the turtles swimming around in the aquarium, and she ate a little of her dinner while sitting on my lap. To make the evening even better, she peed through her diaper while sitting on my lap, so I had to wash off her pants and dry them under the hand dryer, during which they called us back, and we missed it. Eventually, around 9:30, we did 
get called back to a room where Olivia contentedly read her books, emptied the wipes container about 100 times, and played with Pooh. Poor Steve was freaking out because he wasn't here and trying to get an immediate flight out of D.C., which I told him was unnecessary, so he will be home later this evening. I also got a hold of my mom, finally, and she offered to come up, but I told her that we were fine. I figured that they would just bandage it up and send us on our way. I cannot stress enough how wonderful Olivia was; we were way past bedtime and sitting for hours in one place, but she did not fuss at all; in fact, she hammed it up most of the time and kept herself entertained. I thought that it was a bit ironic that I grabbed her Doggies book totally by chance, so we barked like dogs and read the Doggies book over and over. A little before 10, we finally saw a doctor who gave us two options: 1. Leave it alone and hope it doesn't scar too badly or mess up her lip line - 2. Get stitches to help ensure that the lip line heals straight and minimizes scarring. I had no one to consult, so I just asked the doctor what she would do if it was her child, and she said that she would go with the stitches for cosmetic reasons because of Olivia's being a girl, so that is what we did. I hated it! They had to wrap her in a sheet to keep her hands down and bring in two other people to hold her head and body in place. They were as gentle as possible, and the doctor was great! They gave her a shot in her mouth to numb the area and then completed the stitches. She was obviously upset and crying, - she hates doctors even before this - but given everything, she did really well. She didn't fight too badly, and she even stopped crying halfway through. The part that made everyone in the room go, "Awww" was when she called out for Dada in the saddest voice as they were finishing up. The nurse asked if I wanted to leave, but I just couldn't leave her in there alone, so I held her hands through the sheet for part of it and then was told to sit down towards the end so that they could hand her off to me as soon as the last stitch was finished. She immediately lay on my shoulder and held on to my neck so tightly; I actually think that she started drifting off to sleep almost immediately because she was so still. We had to wait a little so as to make sure that there was no reaction to the numbing agent, and my mom showed up about 5 minutes before we were discharged. The nurse warned me that there might be a reaction to the anesthetic overnight, so I figured it would be a good idea for my mom to come and stay, just in case. Olivia immediately went to Grandma, and Grandma promised to get her a balloon on the way home, which she was asking for even before it was mentioned - the child has a one-track mind. The nurse came in and talked to me about the possibility of Liv having a nightmare from being held down, so 
that had me a little on edge all night. We finally got home around 11; as we were pulling in, she started calling for Opie - OOO,PPP - and she didn't seem the least bit upset or afraid of him; although, he did act afraid of me and knew he was in trouble. I also thought that she would be wiped out, but she was ready to party. She was super-excited about the balloon that Grandma stopped and got her, and she had a great time calling Aunt Mallory on Grandma's phone. I finally got her to sleep about 11:30, and although I was sure that she would wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare or soreness, she slept without any problems, except for the fact that she did not even sleep in one extra minute this morning. I stayed awake most of the night, listening to the monitor, so I 
think that I was more scarred than she. This morning, she woke up happy as could be, yelling balloon into the monitor: The child does love balloons. The doctor said that she may act a little off today from everything, but the doctor doesn't know Olivia. I haven't even felt the need to give her any Motrin for the pain because she is basically acting like nothing happened, and she is her normal, crazy, hyper self. She has even been giving Opie kisses and trying to play with him all morning, which is making me crazy and paranoid, but I'm glad she is not afraid of him. I am very lucky that she seems so resilient and that nothing, not even this fiasco, seems to bother her. We have an appointment with the pediatrician to get the stitches out next Tuesday, so now, I'm supposed to keep her lip dry, her face out
of the water, her hands off of her lip, and her daring-little-self from bumping it again until next Tuesday - this should be interesting seeing as she is already back to climbing the walls. I did talk to a nurse this morning about Opie, and she said that a similar situation happened to her when her son was little and that our situation did not in any way sound malicious on Opie's part; therefore, she wouldn't even consider getting rid of Opie as long as he has never acted aggressively towards Olivia in the past, which he has not. That was another worry of mine last night, so I feel a bit better about that now. We may need to see a plastic surgeon once the lip starts healing to make sure that the lip line heals correctly, but it looks pretty good this morning. I am just lucky that I have such a tough cookie! Thank you so much for coming, Grandma; you really helped us both make it through the whole ordeal.One more thing, the most beautiful bouquet of balloons just showed up on our door from a local florist; Liv will be so excited when she wakes up; thank you, Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Ian!
On a happier note, Steve got to meet with Senator Tom Daschle yesterday regarding SoloHealth.
Liv has a new favorite treat, chocolate covered, frozen bananas, which we made this past weekend when it was so hot. She works very hard to get all of the chocolate off!
Liv is continuing to take good care of her baby; she even feeds her snack and gives her juice.
Here are just some cute pictures that I took the other day, for which I can't think of a witty way to incorporate into the text today.
*Lastly, I am just too tired at this point to edit, so you get the blog as is today.
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