Meanwhile back at the Ranch

Yesterday was a rather eventful day. Not on purpose though.

It started out unassuming enough.

Don and I had decided it would be a nice treat to go to Granny's Buffet for breakfast. We thought it would be even nicer to bring Shawn with us and nicer yet to have Kelly tag along.

We had a pleasant time and I'm sure we all felt a little too full by the time we left.
(As well as slightly nauseated. Kelly says, and I'm considering joining him, in swearing off breakfast at Granny's. Ever again.)

I was planning on finally getting my house decorated for Christmas.

First though, I went upstairs to read blogs and leave comments. At around 11:25, I was in the middle of reading my cousin Amy's blog when the phone rang. I saw that it was Donald and Lisa's number. (For those who don't know that would be my son and daughter-in-law, parents of my three youngest grandaughters.)

I answered to a very urgent sounding Donald. "Mom! I need you to get over here right NOW!!!!"

I don't question.

I jumped out of my computer chair, hurried downstairs, threw on my shoes and glasses, grabbed my purse and ran to my car.

I was there in less than 6 minutes.

Their oldest, my six year old grandaughter Alexandra, had horribly injured her poor little self just moments before on their swing set. You can read about it HERE on Lisa's blog.

Trust me it was every bit as gruesome as Lisa says it was. When I got there poor little Lex was sitting on the potty and trying to pee before they took her to the Emergency Room. She was crying so hard because she needed to go so bad but she was terrified of how bad it would hurt.

I won't go into more details because Alexandra was Donald and Lisa's responsibility.
My responsibility was a completely traumatized little Lorelai.

Age four.

This dear little girl, had been outside, playing with her big sister, when the accident occurred. In a nutshell, they were playing on their swing set.

They were wearing gloves.

Alexandra was hanging from the bars. She has hung from those silly bars so many times that it hadn't crossed her mind that doing it while wearing gloves might not be a good idea.

Here is where the story gets a little jumbled.

She lost her grip and fell. She grabbed the swing's chain. She has slid down poles before and it looks like that was what she tried to do with that chain. Well that chain cut deep into her little private area, and this was compounded by the big hook connecting it to the swing's seat.

Lorelai was right there watching the whole thing.

She heard Lex start screaming. She saw the blood. And to make it even worse for her, minutes before she fell, Alexandra had been trying to convince her to come across the bars herself.
Donald knew how upset Lorelai would be so he had told her to stay outside until they could take care of her Sissie. He knew how Lorelai would react to seeing all the blood that was at the moment pooling on their dining room floor.

This had added to Lorelai's fear however.

The thing is, as I talked to Lorelai, I really don't know what the best solution would have been. She was very upset at not getting to come in with her injured sister, but if she had come in, the sight of her sister, bleeding so badly, and screaming and crying, would have probably been an even worse thing for her to watch.

And they say that the President has difficult choices to make.

As hard as it was for me to turn my back on what was going on with Alexandra, I knew my place was with Lorelai. Fortunately baby Elisabeth was sleeping, so at the moment, at least, she wasn't a factor.

Donald and Lisa left with Lex probably ten minutes after I had gotten there.
Before I distracted her with something fun, I realized that Lori really needed to talk about what had happened.

If ever a child needed comforting and needed it now it was Lorelai.

This is when she gave me her version of what had happened outside. The idea that Alexandra had been trying to get her to do the same thing, seemed to be one of the biggest fears she was dealing with right then. I just let her talk. When she announced that she was not ever, going to play on monkey bars until she was seven, I felt that we had started to turn a corner.

The even bigger thing, though, for her had been the blood.

Lorelai is terrified by the sight of blood. A tiny bit of smeared blood on even the smallest owwee is enough to send her into fits. She was very aware that the towels in the kitchen and laundry room were full of her sister's blood. Suddenly, even the tiniest little spot of anything on the floor or the table was suspect. She just knew that all that blood couldn't have possibly all been cleaned up.

I spent an amazing amount of the five hours I was there with her, proving to her how many of those little spots, she kept finding were, chocolate, cracker crumbs or the remaining shards of a candy cane.

(And don't worry Lisa, I am NOT implying that the house was a mess. You know how impressed with your housekeeping skills I am.)

Probably the biggest mistake I made was when Lisa's brother David called.

I was explaining to him what had happened. I think I must have used the word, blood, more than once because I looked over at Lori and she was looking ready to start crying again. When I was done talking to David, Lorelai let me know that she did not want to hear me use the word blood, any more because it was too scary.

I'm pleased to announce that I handled this one perfectly.

We talked about blood. I have never been afraid or grossed out by blood. Actually I have always been somewhat fascinated by it. Those surgery programs, the ones they show on the "medical channels"? I like watching those. I have never been squeamish.

Lorelai on the other hand, finds the very word offensive.

I told her that we would simply need to come up with another name for it. One that she liked, and didn't find scary at all. I offered the first name for it that popped into my head.

Red Goo.

I must have been inspired. Lorelai loved the name "red goo". We both agreed that there was nothing at all scary about "red goo". Just to make sure I even briefly recounted a small part of Alexandra's mishap. Substituting the word red goo for the offensive blood. She took it quite well.

She did feel the need to remind me, of course, that she would never get on a set of monkey bars until she had reached the ripe old age of seven.

I suggested, maybe not even until age eight, or nine, or even ten. She found that very comforting.

Oh, I forgot to mention that, after about 45 minutes, Elisabeth woke up. She is the best little baby girl. I did spend quite a lot of time holding and playing with her. Lorelai loves this little sister so much, that she never once complained about sharing her "Grandma time" with Lizzy.

Lorelai and I played Memory and Old Maid, and were going to play her Mickey Mouse game but she decided on watching Mickey instead.

All in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Sure, I could have been home stressing over Christmas decorations. I could have made a batch of shortbread cookies (please, don't ever commit the sacrilege of using margarine) Who knows I may have even ended up taking a nap.

Instead, I had the satisfaction of knowing that, to at least my kids and grandkids,

I am invaluable.