Two for flinching

So this past Saturday was a busy day. Not only did Monkey throw away her pacifier, she wiped out on the playground and is now sporting an ugly sore about an inch long where her upper lip should be. Ow.

M had Monkey at the playground and they were having a fantastic day. I was at home hanging stereo speakers. They came back in the house and Monkey was a mess. Because in a fit of brilliant quick thinking, Daddy had purchased a lime popsicle from one of the vendors in the park, letting Monkey suck on the popsicle both for distraction and to help reduce the swelling.

Once I got her into the tub to clean off the sugar (lime popsicle), dirt and blood, I could see that she had done a really good number on her lip. Poor thing. You could see shreds of skin hanging down (her inner lip) when she smiled, and even her nose had a scrape on it. Monkey doesn't understand the concept of swishing and spitting, so I couldn't get her to rinse the cuts inside her mouth out with either a salt gargle or diluted hydrogen peroxide.

We cleaned her off and put some neosporin on her outer lip and hoped for the best.

On Tuesday morning, when it was Monkey's first day back at school after Memorial Day, we walked into her daycare and were almost immediately greeted by her lead teacher, Veronica. Veronica is a nurse, and a wonderful teacher.

However, when Veronica bent down to greet Monkey (who was still strapped into her stroller at this moment in time), when she saw Monkey's face she flinched.

It's never good when a nurse flinches when looking at a wound.

Because it is her upper lip, which gets a lot of use with all the singing, talking, yelling, eating, drinking and smiling that Monkey does, the scab keeps splitting open and bleeding. It isn't infected, and it does keep getting better, but still - even today on the way to school I got a double-take from some grandma who leaned in close to look at Monkey and babble babytalk.

I think I should take a picture of her, all beat up. (Oh, and she has a bright red bruise/hickey like mark on her jawline, too. Who knows how she got that one!). I usually take photos of Monkey that try to capture her breathtaking beauty (yes, I am biased. It's my right, dammnit!). But this one I should preserve as well - its proof that our little girl is a trooper. She can tangle with the pavement and still keep on going.