The weekend started out well. We were going out of town for a wedding and I was taking Monday off from work. The wedding was great. It was nice to see friends. Especially those I don't see often enough or ever (e.g., sister of the bride).

We had rented a hotel room for the night but decided to come home instead. Which was fine, too, in the end. But, we ended up getting home around 11pm. Julie fell asleep on the 2 hour drive back but she woke up as I carried her into the house and up to bed. So, she probably didn't really go to bed until 11:30.

Having a rare day off from work that isn't tied to a holiday was nice, too. It was strange though. My wife kept suggesting that I do some "me" stuff. But, at least as of late, I've been so used to taking time off work to do work around the house that I was kind of stuck for what to do. So, I tried to make some progress in getting rid of lots of audio CDs that I no longer am interested in taking up precious space. The only problem now is that my DVD burner appears to have decided to stop burning DVDs. It seems to burn CDs without any problems and can still read CDs and DVDs, too. Grrr...

Monday means that Shelly has a knitting class so she left for that in the afternoon. While Julie ate dinner, I fed Sophie some milk. She promptly fell asleep so I put her in the crib. I prayed that she would stay asleep through Julie's bedtime routine because I knew that when she woke up she would be hungry and it always takes a few minutes to get the milk warmed up and bottled. It's nearly impossible for me to feed Sophie and read a book to Julie at the same time. Many nights when I'm alone with the kids, it's impossible for me to even sit and read stories to Julie while holding Sophie.

Wouldn't you know it, Sophie woke up right as Julie was brushing her teeth. So, I tried to get storytime in while holding the baby but she wasn't having none of it. OK. Went downstairs to start thawing milk. Went back up stairs to try and read some more to Julie (and at least keep an eye on her). Went back downstairs to find the milk had leaked out of a cut in the bag into the water I was using to thaw the milk. Tossed it out and had to start over from the beginning with the milk. Sophie was getting more and more upset. Julie, though, was putting up with this admirably. She either sat in her bed and "read" to herself or she played. By this time, Sophie was so upset that I found it nearly impossible to calm her down enough to eat. Which just made her more upset. Voila! A nice feedback loop!

I finally managed to get Sophie calmed down enough while sitting on our bed. Julie was walking around on our bed and keeping Sophie entertained. That helped a lot! Seriously. Sophie always smiles when she watches Julie doing something. So, things seemed to be getting better until Julie fell off the bed.

I heard her hit one of the nightstands and she was crying hard face down on the floor. As I went to pick her up, I was praying that there would be a bruise and no blood. Much like how everything else went that evening, it was just not my night. As I picked her up and turned her over, I see blood. All over her hands and on her pajama top. Julie's crying and asking, "What is that?" repeatedly about the blood all over her. I barely managed to not completely freak out at this point. In my head, I did say a hearty, "Motherf*ck!" I ran and grabbed some tissue and started wiping the blood off her face because I couldn't tell where it was coming from. She had a small but deep gash right above her right eye (towards the end of her eyebrow). I did my best to calm Julie down and prayed that Shelly would be home soon. I think I heard her walk through the door about 5 minutes after all this happened. I yelled for her to bring up bandages, an ice pack, and to prepare herself. I'm sure it wasn't a pretty sight when she walking into our bedroom -- Julie's pajama top and my t-shirt spattered with lots of blood and all.

Needless to say, we ended up going to the ER to have it looked at. Julie was doing OK initially. She was calm while an RN took her measurements and while we waited to actually get her looked at. But, once we got called back to the urgent care room to have this looked at, she became scared. The doc decided to put in two stiches so it required that I hold a numbing agent over the area for 15 minutes which Julie didn't like. Shelly and I sat right next to her to try and keep her calm. Everytime a staff person came in the room, Julie got scared and would ask a billion questions. Finally, it was time for the doc to do the actual work. They put Julie in a "Papoose". It's basically a board with straps to restrain children (for their safety as well as the staff's). Julie was scared about all of that more so than the stitches. The docs put in the stitches and got her cleaned up. We eventually got released and home by a little after 11pm. Shelly gave Julie a cute little monkey bandaid to cover the stitches and then read her one last story before turning the lights out.

Shelly said that Julie seemed just fine by the time she went to bed. Me, I still feel horrible. Shelly says that it's not my fault and that it could have happened even if she had been around. It was obviously an accident and it's why we constantly tell Julie to not jump on the bed, etc. But, I still feel like it's my fault. Probably because I'm the parent and I'm supposed to be looking out for her well being.

Boy, this makes for a nice run-up to Father's Day, no?