When life gives you lemons............

Kali 1.0's birthday party was this weekend. Certainly ended up being an exciting one.

Everyone came over to our house around 6:00 PM. We were getting the food ready when we heard a snarl from the laundry room area where Nova 7.9 was eating his food. Following that, you could hear Kali start to scream. Mrs. Lime went into the room and found Kali with a couple of nice puncture wounds on her hand. She had snuck away unnoticed during all the hub-bub and stuck her hand into the dog's food bowl. Bad idea.

As a result, there was lots of concern about Kali and her hand. A couple of the doctors on hand checked it out. We ended up putting a band-aid and some neosporin on the hand and we went ahead with the party as Kali felt better. We ate dinner and then Kali opened her presents. She got a few new toys to play with. For some reason, the best toy was apparantly a pink cowgirl hat. She kept putting it on and then taking it off again. Every time she put on the hat, everyone would cheer her on. She'd put a big grin on her face and then take it back off. She couldn't get enough of the attention.

Later on, she got her 'smash' cake. She had a blast eating some of the icing and cake while most of it ended up all over her and the high chair. After she was done, I took her up to the bathroom to clean her up. Her cake had red icing. As a result, when she was finished with her cleanup, the bathtub in her room had red coloring smeared all over it, leaving it looking more like a murder scene than a baby's bathtub.

We put Kali to bed and she went to sleep quickly, tired from the long party. Unfortunately, she woke up after a couple of hours and started screaming. Mrs. Lime brought her into our bed to keep an eye on her. By morning, Kali's hand was swollen to about twice its normal size. We took her into the emergency room at the hospital. By the time we got into a room a short time later, her hand had started turning red and showed signs of infection. The emergency room doc even came in and took a picture of her hand to show how quickly an infection can spread in a bite wound. So Kali will indirectly be teaching future ER doctors about bite wound treatment for years to come!

Kali ended up being admitted to the hospital overnight for some IV antibiotics. So she gets to spend most of her birthday hanging out in a children's hospital. She's likely going to be home today or tomorrow, so she should be fine in a few days.

While it's initially a bit of a bummer that Kali is spending her birthday in a hospital, I think the whole visit should be put in perspective. While I was at the children's hospital yesterday, I saw a couple of kids who were cancer patients and other kids with very severe health issues. They are in the hospital for weeks at a time, despite their relatively young age. Much like Kali did after her injury, those kids put on a smile and continue on with their play and other daily activities. They aren't phased by it at all. Kids are amazingly resiliant and can deal with just about anything. Adults could learn a lot from these kids.

So even though it's a bummer that Kali is in the hospital for a day or two, we should be very thankful that we have a child that is healthy. Also, we should recognize that the sick or disabled kids that have more problems than we'll ever have to deal with provide a great role model for the rest of us to never take life too seriously. Have fun and enjoy every day that comes along.