Orion, with a chance of being 9 years old

Orion is 9!

Welcome the New Year with a hole in the head

No New Years Eve is complete without a trip to the emergency room. Or at least the urgent care office. In this case, Jessi took a face-first dive off of a stool on to the tile floor before 8:45 PM when the Kaiser urgent care office was closed for the day. It's not entirely clear what exactly happened as nobody nearby saw it happen. Jessi was sitting on a stool facing away from the counter. We suspect she had her feet wrapped around the stool and she lost her balance and SMACK - head first onto the tile. There actually was a sickening SMACK sound. Ylfelynn got to her first and picked her up. As soon as I saw her head, I knew we were making a trip to the doctor. Sometimes there is some question about whether stitches may be required but there was no doubt this time. We did not take a picture of the injury but that is probably just as well since posting it would mean this blog would no longer be family-rated. Just picture that slit on her head a wide, gaping hole. For some reason, the wound did not bleed as much as a head wound like that tends to - I think it may have been the blunt-force trauma of the injury that precluded much blood.

When I took a close look at it, I started to get woozy and had to sit down (something that affects me when I have an empty stomach. I stopped watching the needle when I give blood due to a similar incident when giving blood on my mission). Due to my wooziness, Ylfelynn took her to the urgent care (as members of Kaiser we get to drive 45 minutes to Lancaster for service). Now Jessi can compare notes with her cousin Jaidyn on the relative merits of use of the papoose - a curiously-named child restraint device.

Treatment was successful and with six stitches, Jessi and Ylfelynn returned home in time for the silly string portion of our New Years Eve celebration. Jessi stayed awake until about 11 PM. Everyone else (except Zac, of course) was able to stay up until midnight and welcome the New Year (a first for the children of the family).