That'll Teach Me...

I will never, ever, EVER again comment on a boring post. Don't scroll too far down if you don't want to see some pictures of Amelia's gigantic face bruise...

Yesterday we went again to Planet Kids for an afternoon of play. Everything started out fine. We met some friends and got the little kids playing in the ball pit. Amelia went off to climb. After about 20 minutes, I could hearAmelia crying, making her way down to me. She had a huge knot right above her left eyebrow, and it was growing by the minute. It was so big, and I couldn't get out of her exactly what happened (other than "I fell"), we got ready to make a beeline to the hospital. One of my friends was going to meet us at the ER to watch Jack (TJ was in Germany and so couldn't help).

We got to the ER, got registered and got in to see a doctor pretty quickly. After a bunch of questions (try trying to find out if a 3 1/2-year-old lost consciousness by asking her). I felt terrible that I didn't see what happened, so I was trying to ask her medical questions in 3 1/2-year-old lingo ("Did you fall asleep for a minute after you fell?") They had her touch her nose, stand on one foot, and all that good stuff. Amelia had fun jumping up and down and acting silly.

They basically told me that they didn't think she had a skull fracture, and that we should just keep an eye on her for the next few hours to make sure she was OK. That involved trying to wake her up last night. That part didn't go well -- she mostly just tried to shoo us away whenever we tried to wake her up. So we decided she was probably OK.

She woke up her usual bounch self this morning. And just as the doctor had told us, the blood blister (or hematoma, as they kept calling it), had migrated down to right above her eye. It looks terrible.

I felt her head this morning, and I felt an indentation in her head where she had hit, and immediately panicked. Even though she was feeling fine, I was worried that she really had fractured her skull and needed to be seen. So I called TJ, and he came home from work to take us BACK to the ER. They reexamined her and while they agreed that she could potentially have a fracture, there's no real course of treatment for a fracture. I was worried about it being a serious depression, but the doctor didn't seem to think it was. They were willing to do a skull x-ray if I really wanted, but they said there wasn't much of a benefit to it. So off we went again, and she's been fine all day.

I'm totally paranoid about it, but I feel better to have gotten two opinions and to have a bouncy girl. I hope it heals quickly.

On the plus side, we learned all about the ER and how to navigate that. We had to pay "full price" since we don't have national health care -- but it was only 50. So it was well worth the 100 euros to get some peace of mind. The whole process was quick and easy and relatively painless. I was eternally grateful to have Tara there to watch Jack and let me concentrate on Amelia. It's nice to have made a good friend so quickly. It would've been a much rougher afternoon without her...

Amelia Visits the Royal Palace ... or Tries to

We had another good weekend. Saturday found us going on another car shopping adventure. We headed to Antwerp to look at a car, which turned into a disaster. The garage wasn't too forthcoming about showing us the car (when we arrived, we were told it was at another location a few miles away, and we were supposed to go there). It all seemed a little shady, so we decided that looking for a McDonalds seemed like a better idea.

We finally tracked one down (they sure aren't as prevalent as at home!), and we were thrilled to see that Big Macs tasted just the same as they do at home. Lunch was fantastic!! The kids had a McNugget happy meal, and they came with carrots and applesauce in a pouch. Definitely more healthy than at home.

So Saturday proved not very fruitful in the car department, but Amelia was happy to pick out two desserts at the bakery...



Amelia has been practicing dressing herself. She's been doing a great job, for the most part, though we've had a few inside-out shirts.

Grand Place
On Sunday, we went down to the Grand Place in Brussels. It's just beautiful, and there was a lot of activity. Open shops, lots of restaurants, lots of activity in the square. The picture below is of one of the sides of the Grand Place. There was a small market (crafts, rather than food) going on, and we had the kids' silhouettes done. There was a gentleman who did them lickety-split -- under a minute -- it was amazing to watch. And only 5 euros for the two of them. I had been looking to do them at home, and one place was going to be charging around $30 apiece. A great little keepsake.



We also stopped by the palace to see if the king was home. Amelia was really hoping he could play. Alas, we were not allowed in, but the kids had fun running around anyway.


We did buy a second car yesterday, so we're off to go through the paperwork cycle again for this car. With luck, we'll be able to pick it up by the end of the week -- or maybe early next week. We are going to look at a school tomorrow for Amelia. They have an opening starting now, so we're going to see what the facility is like. It's 5 days a week, with the option of going in the afternoons, too. I'm not sure I'm ready to have her gone so much. And I'm sure Jack won't know what to do with himself, either. But I know it would be good for her, and she got excited when I mentioned visiting the school.

I'm afraid this isn't the most exciting of posts, but we can't always be full of exciting news!