It’s Sunday and we’re all bored. Mira has been sitting around all weekend watching TV with me, mostly because I’m too lazy to do much of anything else. Works has been a bit hectic lately and it’s only gonna get busier for the next few weeks. So, I try to spend the weekends doing an impression of a slug: move very little, lay around a lot. Erika decides, “That’s it, we’re going to the pool. You can sit around if you want, but I am taking Mira to the pool after her nap. We’re going to work out some of the energy she’s got.”

I’m not going to be “that guy” that sends his wife and daughter to the pool without him. And I do enjoy spending time with them. I’d just prefer it involves blankets and happens on the living room floor lately. I like to call it my cold weather procrastination. We’re not in the winter enough to have cabin fever and it’s not terribly cold yet. It’s just cold enough to discourage me from going outside. I’m used to the moderately warm fall weather and have not grown accustomed to the cold winter weather, I’d rather just sit inside and be a slug.

So, we load everything up into the car and head to the local rec center. Rocky River has this fantastic rec center with a small indoor water park. There’s a couple of slides, a zero depth entry area for little kids, a lazy river and all kinds of water fountains and stuff. Mira loved this place last winter. Today, she’s terrified of it. Once we get her changed and out to the pool area. She’s crying and running for the door to leave.

The thing you should know about Mira is that she’s not crazy about “change” or “new things.” We’ll normally have to allow her time to adjust. At Halloween a few weeks ago, she was just about crapping her pants she was crying so hard. But after the first few houses and after she realized the monster that was following her was actually Pops (Erika’s Dad), she was fine. So, we strapped on our “patient” hats and just followed her and tried to encourage her to try things out.

Just when she was starting to warm up, she took off on her little run/trot that she does. It’s not really a run, but I wouldn’t call it a controlled walk either. As this is a pool and the tile is particularly wet today, sure enough, she slips and falls right on her head. But this is not a slip. This is a legs shoot out from underneath you, hips fly up in the air and the entire impact of the fall is taken full on by your skull. It’s the kind of fall that, as a parent, you are never prepared for. The kind of fall that sends your heart into your stomach and makes you want to throw up right on the spot. Even sitting here typing this message several weeks later, I just can’t describe in words the impact that the sound of your child’s head hitting against some unforgiving object has on you.

My first reaction, was to get her and head straight to the hospital. Erika assured me that these are common occurrences and in her years of babysitting, she’s seen this type of thing happen many times before. Now, you should know that Mira is screaming bloody murder. It was the scream that follows the initial “silent scream.” I love the silent scream, it’s my queue that she about to “bring down the thunder.” I know that lots of kids can scream pretty good, but many will attest that Mira (though so small she isn’t even on the size charts) can go toe to toe with any screaming kid in the country. Even at hospitals, people are like, man that kid can scream.

30 minutes later her clothes are back on and we are heading home. She’s in the back seat with the post crying sniffs. And she doesn’t look good at all. However, we are aware that she hasn’t had a nap in days. So, she should be exhausted. And even though I said that we went to the pool after her nap. That really means that we went to the pool after she sat in her bed for 2 hours and kicked the wall when she should have been napping.

Erika (who is a nurse mind you) has checked her out and made sure that she isn’t exhibiting any of the normal signs of head trauma. We get home and Erika and Mira lay down and take a nice nap. Once they get back up, Mira is fine and acting normal again. Everything seems to be just fine.

Note: This is how the whole brain surgery/hematoma started. The next post I make will be dated a week later when we actually found the huge lump on her head.