14 mONTHS aND sTICHES

Here is the whole bloody story...Marley was playing at my mom's house on Monday and some of the kids went out the front door. My mom's house is a split entry home and Marley goes up and down her stairs at least five times a day. Marley decided she wanted to go outside and went down the stairs. I didn't see exactly what happened, I only heard bump, bump, boom and then crying. I ran to the stairs and found Marley laying face up at the bottom with blood coming out of her head. I instantly thought STITCHES!!! It took Marley about 10 minutes to calm down and then she was pretty reasonable.

Blake and I took her to our pediatrician's office and they first put some numbing gel on her head. We were so lucky that the doctor who was stitching her up works in the ER at Primary Children's hospital. She said she stitches kids up all the time. Marley had to get papoosed to the table and then the horrible part began. They poked her with a needle and then started stitching. Each of the 9 times the needle went through her head she screamed. The nurse was dipping her binky in sugar water, but it didn't really help. During the stitching is when I decided I was a really bad mom and that I should have kept her from falling! After the stitching they opened the straight-jacket thing and Marley was so sweaty and sad. She just laid shaking on my shoulder, but by the time we got to the car, she seemed fine. We had to take the band-aid off right away because Marley was trying to tear it off. Doesn't this picture say it all! I am tired and hurt, but I can deal with it. (That is Marley all right!)

This is Marley picking at her stitches. She did this for the first day she had the stitches. She must of gotten sick of me telling her no, because she finally stopped touching them.

We bought Marley some fruit snacks after her ordeal and this is her doing the sign for 'candy'.

And the sign for 'please'.

The wound looks much better now that it is four days later. The stitches are disolvable, but she has to go get checked out on Saturday. I think it is so funny what some people say about this little incident. I was at the park yesterday and one of the dad's started up a conversation. He asked me about Marley's stitches. After I told him the story he said, "I guess you weren't watching her very well."

-Yep, I guess I wasn't.

Now for some 14 month information...

Marley is still learning new things every day and she is so busy and fun. My sister calls her the Piranha because she is a biter. I was trying to get her swimming suit on one day at the pool and she was so mad. Every time she saw one of my limbs she would go for it with her mouth. She tries to bite quite often, although it has slowed down a little bit. She usually bites me or my niece Kaiya. I guess because we are the coolest!!

She has some new words added to her list: cheese and please.

She signs more things, but her most frequent are water, dog, please, candy, eat and tree.

Things she loves:

eating (especially candy), being outside riding in the wagon or stroller, swinging, reading

Things she hates:

being in her high chair, getting her face washed, getting dressed

Love her!!!!