One more for the books.

It seems that most families have that one child that makes you grateful for medical insurance. Piper is that child in our house, and heaven forbid that she not turn three years old without another accident to write in the baby book! It started at 15 months old... she was playing around an old love seat and cut her lip on a wire sticking from the back... the result was a couple stitches and a scar on her bottom lip. Trip #2 to emergency care was when she decided to choke on and swallow down some coins she found on the floor.... a scary day. Only a month or so later, she must have thought we needed to check out the facility's in Pocatello during a visit when she cut her chin on a bathtub faucet and had 7 stitches put in. I really don't even want to mention the double hernia surgery that she has to have soon. Gratefully, yes, we have been blessed with no broken bones yet.

I'll give her credit that on the day before her third birthday she was an innocent bystander when her medical adventure side swiped her in the head.... literally. We had just picked Rebekah up from school and I was unlocking the car while the girls stood on the sidewalk behind me. There is a school policy of no riding bikes on school campus but some of the kids are bound to be kids. A group of 13 yr. old boys were riding fast (really fast, might I add) on the sidewalk and the first boy in the group saw Piper to late. She was knocked down and dragged through the gravel 5 feet before the boy could stop practically on top of her. Because she initially looked okay (I didn't see blood) I told him she was fine and he could go. But after a few witnesses of it approached me to see if we were okay and I really started to look at her face, I knew I needed to report it to the school in case I had to take her to a hospital for a concussion later.

We ended up spending over an hour talking with school personnel, filing reports, and checking Piper for head trauma. I am very grateful that Piper only came away with some scrapes and bruises, I started to realize that it could have been much worse.

The boy that was involved had to learn a lesson the hard way that I know he will remember for a long time. The next day after I picked up Rebekah he was waiting at my car with his friends to see how Piper was doing and apologize again for what had happened. The times that we've crossed paths since then, he always stops to see how she is doing.

Piper spent her birthday sporting a swollen eye and some noticeable bruises, but I don't think she minded the sympathy from strangers. I don't like the picture I have because it doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea. I just have to chalk it up to Piper wanting one more adventure for the books before turning the big 3.