Ouch!

When Lukas was a baby, I started carrying him outside to watch the garbage truck pick up our trash every week, saying, "There go our dirty diapers!" He has always been excited to see any garbage truck (he points them out in the car, anywhere we see them...he is also fixated on trash cans). So every week when he hears the trash truck coming down the street, he yells, "Can I open the door?" (He must ask permission to open the front door). I say, "Yes," and he sits on the front step to watch the trash truck.

Natalie used to have in-home therapy during trash pickup time (so she was occupied), but lately she doesn't...but then I also have Konrad to watch out for, so I wasn't pushing her to go see the trash truck when it came. But since she's been walking, and since she's also caught the "trash day fever" from Lukas, she gets excited when Lukas gets excited, so I've encouraged her to go outside and watch the trash truck.

So....

Yesterday morning we were all sitting on the front porch watching the trash truck, and I suggested staying there until the truck came back down the other side of the street (it takes several minutes, so usually we go inside, then come back out again when we hear it coming again). I was clipping Konrad's fingernails and Lukas was doing something next to me, and Natalie was on the other side of Lukas from me. I was not paying attention to Natalie, because she knows how to get down two steps.

Then we heard the trash truck coming back, and suddenly Natalie was on the sidewalk in front of the porch, face down. I heard her glasses scrape, and she had her face planted on the sidewalk. Aahhhh! I ran inside to put Konrad in the house and then ran back out to pick up poor Natalie.

Poor girl! Somehow her nose was scraped on every side (how did she do that?) The glasses lenses were VERY scraped up (thankfully we have a spare). I cleaned her nose and put anti-bacterial cream on it, and a band-aid. She took the first band-aid off, and the second one stayed on until dinner time. Surprisingly, she didn't cry as long as she's cried over other falls. I was surprised, because that nose looks very painful!

This is how it looks today (she's signing "twinkle twinkle little star"). I'm putting cream on it to keep it moist, and hopefully it will heal in a week or so. I wish I could say, "But you should see the other guy!" but taking on a cement sidewalk never comes out pretty.

This morning I called the optometrist to see if we would have to pay for new lenses, or if they have some sort of discount for replacement. The optometrist said, "Well, she scraped them just in time, because the one-year warranty on the lenses expires October 4." Wow! When does that ever happen...usually we break something two weeks after the warranty expires, not two weeks before! There might be a few dollars' fee, but not the $300 that the lenses originally cost.

Her nose looks terrible, but she doesn't seem to be bothered by it, thankfully. Every time I look at her, I feel terrible. I can't wait to hear "what happened to her!" tomorrow when we go to the therapy clinic.