Tough as a Pine Knot

You've just seen the pictures, so you know what has taken place. Long story short, Kenzie was running at Mom's while carrying a bunch of books for Granddad to read to her. She tripped and fell into the coffee table, busting her chin. After deciding that this injury required more than a band-aid, we headed back to Knoxville to Children's Hospital. I was hoping we would get away with just a butterfly bandage or something, but it didn't turn out that way.

Now, it's important to point out that when we first saw Kenzie, you would have thought that we were offering to treat her cut with salt or something, because she was screaming and fighting us just looking at it. We really didn't know what to expect from the E.R. visit, but if last weeks visit to the pediatrician for shots was any indication, things weren't going to go well. During the hour long drive, I fully prepared myself to hold back tears while they tortured my baby.

We arrived and to our amazement, we didn't wait long, nor did Kenzie cause a fuss when they took her band-aid off in triage to replace it with lidocaine gel and a piece of tape. We were assured that the gel was pretty much the stuff that miracles are made of, and it turned out, they were right.

While we waited to see the doctor, I explained exactly what they were going to do and told her that if she would be very still while they used their "string band-aids", we would get out of there much sooner and that we would head straight to Toys R Us for a special toy afterwards. I was still apprehensive about them scrubbing the wound clean and actually stitching her up, but they said they have a girl that comes in with toys and bubble to distract kids while they have procedures done. We honestly thought that it wouldn't matter if Spongebob himself showed up, nothing was going to distract Kenzie from someone coming at her face with needles.

As it turned out, we were totally wrong.

Kenzie didn't move a muscle the entire time and didn't cry a single tear. We were about to burst with pride and were relieved that we didn't have to see her suffer. (Plus, I also knew that my kid would be one that was remembered as incredibly well behaved and brave once we left).

After being given a popsicle at the hospital and checking out, we drove straight to Toys R Us and told her she could pick out anything she wanted. We were so proud, she could have asked for a tree-house and we probably would have said, "sure honey, whatever you want- did you want a pet goat as well?"

Lucky for us, she decided on Play Doh and a little baby doll.