What Can Take Place Within 1 Minute

Yesterday we decided to visit an arts and crafts place for open art time with LW and her 2 daughters. We walked through the doors and Eli immediately went over to a rectangular table to check out the paints and paintbrushes. At this point, the nice lady there is welcoming us and beginning to show us the forms we have to fill out. As she's talking, Elina starts running over to Eli at the table because she wanted to see what he was up to. Mind you, there is nothing on the floor at all. There are no obstacles in the way...there is nothing to get your feet caught up in. Then, suddenly, Elina trips close to the table...it all seemed to happen in slow-motion for me. As she falls, she bangs the table...but from my vantage point, it looked like she kinda caught herself with her hand on the table. I was totally wrong! She caught the entire blow to her head, right above her forehead. (I just want to make a note that at this point we have literally been inside the arts place for 1 minute!! How could all this happen so quickly??)

Next thing I know she's screaming and I run over. There's blood just dripping down her face and it starts getting on her hands and on my hands. There's just blood everywhere. It was quite the scene...as most head injuries are since the head is so vascular. I use paper towels to apply pressure and I'm about to cry myself.

Fortunately, I lucked out with 2 things. First, I was lucky to have my friend with me. LW said she'd watch Eli with her kids at the arts place while I took Elina to an urgent care clinic. (As you can see from the picture on the right, Eli had a blast painting and drawing while we were gone.) Second, this all took place close to where B works. I really don't have the stomach for my kids' injuries. I am too emotionally involved...I always want to cry myself. So how can I tell them everything will be ok when I don't think everything will be ok?? I am not good at pinning down my kids' arms while they are crying and screaming when the doctor has to do something to them. I am not good at looking right at my kids' injuries--up close. I let B take care of this kind of stuff because he has the stomach for it and isn't constantly fighting back tears during these emergencies.
So I took Elina to a clinic and immediately called B. I asked him to come to the clinic to be with Elina so that I could go back to the arts place to pick up Eli. Elina ended up getting 3 stitches right above her hairline. They gave her blue stitches so that they would be more visible in her black hair. I wasn't there to watch them putting the stitches in, but B said that he had to pin her arms down because she kept trying to swat the doctor's hands away. He said there was lots of crying, too, so I'm glad I wasn't there. I know I sound like a rotten mom when I say that, but I really am not helpful in these situations--seriously.

I thought Elina would be out of it today and I almost kept her home from her school field trip. But she's actually back to her normal self already. I guess kids are pretty resilient. Too bad I'm not so resilient. I keep replaying the fall in my head. I just wonder what I could've done differently to have prevented her from falling. Maybe I shouldn't have let her run off to go to Eli. Maybe I should've explicitly told her, "No running," right before we got into the place. Maybe...maybe. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, right? Who knows. Either way, I'm just glad that in the big scheme of things, this is pretty minor and Elina will be ok. I think I lost a year or two off of my life because of what happened. I came home and I was exhausted...more exhausted than I have been in awhile. I was even dozing off while we watched a TV show and had to turn in early. I think I'm the one who will be out of it for a day or two.