Of Course

Last week I was on my way to the dentist when I realized I had forgotten to grab my phone off the kitchen counter before heading out the door. Dang. I considered turning around, but there was no way I could have gotten to the dentist on time, and then since I was already going to be so late to work, I decided I could do without it for a day. "Remember ten years ago, when I didn't even have a cell phone?" I reminded myself. "You can get through one silly day without it."

I got to work and emailed Andrew, Tara, and Kristin, saying that I had forgotten my phone, so here was my work number and of course they could always email me--I am rarely far from the computer during the workday. An uneventful morning passed.

Around noon, Andrew called my work number. "Well, you've missed an exciting morning," he says.

Um, what? What do you mean by that?

He went on to explain that he and Olive were now on their way back to Tara's house (side note: normally Tara comes to our house, but since our gutters were being replaced that day, Olive was at Tara's house) after having lunch at Winstead's after Olive had to go to the EMERGENCY ROOM.

Uhhhh... panicangerheartracingomgwhatthehellwhydidn'tyoucallmeearlier?

Lots of things racing through my mind, primarily, oh my god, my baby just went through something terrible and I was not there for her. Seriously, of all the days. The ONE DAY I forget my phone is the FIRST DAY Olive has to go the ER. (And yes, I said "first day" because I am certain she'll end up there again. Girl is cray-zay.)

It turned out to not be so bad. She fell into a barstool and cut her chin, just below her lip. Her teeth cut her somewhere inside her mouth. Her lip was swollen and there was lots of bleeding. Tara tried to call me (this was before I had been able to email about the lack of a phone), then reached Andrew. Because of the excessive bleeding, Tara thought Olive should go to the hospital, maybe needed stitches. But by the time Andrew even got there, it had stopped bleeding. But you know, better safe than sorry and all that, so he took her anyway.

She did not get any stitches, just some neosporin, basically. By the time I saw her after work, the cut was barely noticeable. She was fine, honestly.

But I was kind of a wreck. I felt horrible that I wasn't there. And I felt horrible that no one was able to reach me. I did let Andrew know that in the future, if something like this happens and I don't answer my phone, please please please keep calling until you reach me. Call every number, email, text, call someone else who might be able to reach me. If I had heard that he was on his way to the hospital with her, I would have dropped everything and rushed to my car so I could be there. Olive was perfectly fine with Daddy, but Mommy wasn't fine without Olive.

Andrew reassured me that everything was fine and that Olive really enjoyed her butterscotch shake at Winstead's. It took me much longer to calm down.

The whole thing was good practice though, for when Olive climbed over the top of Milo's big wheel and face-planted on the street tonight. Andrew brought her inside, blood dripping out of her mouth, and calmly said, "Mommy, can you help us out? Olive hurt her mouth again." And we got her all taken care of. No trip to the ER required.