The middle child is pathetically sick. Her nose is dripping and she obviously feels awful. Although she's still asking to go bye-bye, even she has been forced to slow down some. Not enough to stop her from tripping over her feet, falling face first into the floor and badly splitting her lip though.

Naturally, I was out of the room, but ran when I heard her wailing. I grabbed her and cuddled her close. Then I noticed the blood on her hand, my shirt, and her mouth. I had to rinse her mouth before I could even figure out what was bleeding, but after rinsing and having her suck on a cold washcloth the bleeding stopped.

The pediatrician thought she might need stitches from my description, but since the doctor's office is in the same complex with the Children's Hospital they told me to bring her by the office before going to the ER. That turned out to be the right thing to do, since, although sniffling pathetically and sucking on her swollen lip, The Girl wasn't really so bad. It's a nasty split, but not in need of stitches.

So we can wait on the first ER visit of 2005 for a little while longer. In the meantime, The Girl fell asleep while I was holding her in my lap about an hour ago and I hope she takes a good long nap. She needs it.