Soph's great fall

 

Summertime is the best.  I wasn't sure how this summer would go with a newborn and Lydia and Sophie wanting to get out so much and be active, but we have incredible neighbors and they've been so good to us, offering to watch the girls and let them swim over at their place or jump on their trampoline.  Anyway, on July 21st it was a glorious day and our neighbors, the Smiths invited Lydia and Sophie over to swim while I tended to Mia. This was an especially welcome invite since Jon was out of town for work.  Changing things up was exactly what we needed.

I walked over to drop them off and stayed for awhile.  The girls were in good hands with their favorite teenage girls (some of them being beloved babysitters. Which reminds me, Lydia once told me to make plans so that Brittany could come over. Thoughtful, isn't she? :)) Anyway, I went home while they swam, snacked and jumped on the tramp.  It was just about time for dinner, so I walked across the street to pick them up only to find out that the girls were having such a great time that they never wanted to come home again. ;) After letting them stay a few more minutes and much persuasion we trekked back across the street for home, excited that Dad would be returning home in a few hours.

We had some trash to throw in the garbage, so while Lyds took the shortcut across the lawn, Soph stuck by my side and once our wrappers were deposited, she started running along the driveway toward our front door.  She's pretty quick, but this time her feet couldn't keep up with her body or something and suddenly she was on the ground.  Her knees landed hard on the driveway, then her chest connected and she slid for a second before her chin made contact with the concrete and stopped her outright (or her chin, that is) while her momentum propelled her body onward a little bit more.  Or as she likes to tell it, "I was running and I fell down and scraped my chest and hit my chin and my body kept going and going and going and going." And to hear her tell it!!  I love her little voice!  Of course in the moment I had no idea that all of that had happened.  I caught up to her and she stood up and cried a little bit.  She kept reaching up to touch her chin and I noticed the blood.  In fact, she left a little trail of blood on the concrete leading up to the front door, a few swipes on the door when she was trying to get inside and then some more drops in the entry. I set her on the bathroom counter prepared to wash her off and then stick a Band-Aid on her chin when I really got a good look.  And that's when I called Jon.  Then I hung up.  I needed a picture to show him.  He couldn't know that she'd need stitches or not unless he could actually see the wound. I wasn't thinking super clearly, but if we did need stitches then I'd need someone to watch Lydia for sure.  I ran outside and bless my next door neighbor, Melanie was outside too.  I waved her over and asked if she could take a look at Soph's chin for me.  I was holding it together pretty well until she confirmed that she needed stitches and Jon called at the same time.  He told me he'd call his mom and see how she could help.  Melanie said she could take Lydia and keep her over there while we went to the Insta-Care. Lydia kept saying how worried she was about Sophie and that she hoped the doctor would take good care of her and that she would get feeling better soon.  She ended up making a get well card for Soph while we were away. 

Grandma and Grandpa Frazier met us at the Insta-Care and held on to Mia while I was with Soph.  It's a good thing too!  She had a hard time at first, but eventually fell asleep, and then slept until we returned home. When we checked in a nurse came over to Sophie and asked her what happened.  She tried her best but clearly didn't want to talk to this lady so I did most of the explaining.  This happened at least two more times and I started feeling a little bit like they were trying to find out if I beat my kids. I know, they're just doing their job. So once we were in the procedural room, one of the nurses cleaned out her wound pretty aggressively it seemed to me and Soph barely even flinched! She numbed her chin at the same time and then we had to let her sit for a few minutes so that she'd be good and numbed before the doctor stitched her up.  I found out that the nurse who cleaned her chin told the doctor that she'd need at least two people holding her down while he stitched her up.  I'm sure that the reason that she thought that was because Sophie is so young, but what she didn't know is that Sophie is incredibly tough.  She was supposed to be wrapped up like a burrito in one of the hospital blankets, but they didn't have one in there, so she had a sheet placed on top of her and I stood next to her to comfort her and help hold her down if needed, alongside another nurse.  Well, she didn't need either of us.  She was so incredibly brave through it all! Admittedly I felt a wee bit squeamish watching the doctor pull on her raw skin while he hooked the stitches in, but Soph just lay there looking at me like I was in the middle of telling her a moderately interesting story.  She was so calm and trusting and patient.  I know I had my share of stitches growing up, but I can't imagine I was ever as brave as this little lady.  We were told to come back in five days to have the stitches removed and she got some stickers and a sucker.  Which, by the looks of it, made it all worth it! She'd later tell anyone who asked about her stitches that she was "brave like Merida."

I love this little girl!  She's super polite when she wants to be, saying "my pleasure" and "no thank you".  She puts her fingers in her mouth if she thinks she's in trouble, or she's nervous or upset.  Basically anytime she's uncomfortable. She loves to play library with Lydia, though she hasn't quite figured out that sending her patron away with the promise that she'll be open "in five minutes" or with the request to "come back tomorrow" might not be a much fun for anyone else as she thinks it is.  She's still our little fashionista and not only wants to pick out what she wears each day, but also which dress Mia will wear.  And yes, it's always a dress.  She also has opinions on my clothes and told me the other day that she liked my shoes when she saw me wearing an old pair she hadn't seen before. One of my favorite outfit combos she's come up with for herself consisted of white tights with pink and purple hearts, her patriotic dress and a cheetah smock trimmed with hot pink.  All so beautiful!!  She loves to give all of us checkups, especially shots.  She says these incredible prayers that make me feel like she knows exactly who she's talking to and that He really is her friend.  One night it was late so I decided to skip scripture reading and go straight to prayers and Sophie prayed "we're thank you for scriptures even though we didn't read them tonight." among other things, and I felt severely chastened and decided to share a spiritual thought afterward while making a mental note to never do that again. Also, this girl has so many treasures!  Oh the treasures!!  If there is any sort of container with an opening, be it cubby, backpack, gift bag or Tupperware (to name a few) she will put her treasures into it. Treasures can be anything: hair bands, play jewelry, blocks, ribbons, you name it.  Generally small things, books included.  It's slightly exasperating and yet so incredibly endearing at the same time.  No wonder she can never find her little Apple Bloom pony. And that might explain why we can't find some of Lydia's favorite little horses either....  She loves Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and I love hearing her sing the Goodnight song to her little kitten.  "Goodnight. Sleep tight.  Dream dreams as sweet as you." She takes really good care of her animals.  Lately she sings "lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way!" And I love that my girls sing!! When she wants to talk to Jon, she'll say, "Dad, I wanna tell you something." And then waits to make sure he's listening.  She and Lydia love writing letters to Dad and putting them in the mailbox so he'll be surprised and know just how much they love him. But my favorite thing with her lately is when she goes up to me or Jon and tells us, "I love you" just because. And not just us.  She'll suddenly tell us that she loves Mia and even that she loves Lydia. Sometimes.  I love it when these little ladies are sweet to each other.  I can't believe that six months ago we were worried that she wasn't talking.  It's incredible to me how much she's grown! Just last Sunday we were walking through the church heading to the bathroom so that I could change her diaper before we headed home and I realized that it would take longer to walk to the family bathroom than it would to just use the women's.  I told her we were going the wrong direction, so we stopped, turned around and she said, "Jesus Christ wants us to go the right direction." I'm not sure why hearing her say that meant so much to me, but it did.  I'm sure it had something to do with the way she said it.  And that she's barely two and a half, but more than that I think it was that she really knows what she's talking about.  These little ones!  I just love her (and them!) so much!