merry christmas, y'all!

... things are about to get really busy in our home, so in case i don't get to post for a while, have yerselves a merry little christmas and a blast of a new year!

...ted's bro charles and his wife ali will be staying with us next week...i only work two out of the five work days, and i'm really looking forward to spending time with the family and our friends...

...i'm especially thankful today because a couple nights ago, i saw my life flash before my eyes...we had quite a scare with cadence, and it taught me how precious each day is, and how fragile life can be and yet how resilient children are at the same time...

...well, the story is that we were doing some christmas shopping tuesday night at the mall...we were leaving around 9:30pm, and i was carrying cadence in my arms in front, and i couldn't see that there was a concrete slab on the sidewalk where a bench used to be mounted, and i totally tripped and sent cadence flying backwards and she hit her head full force on the concrete...i can't even try to express in words how stunned and shocked i was at that moment...without even thinking, i scooped her up into my arms and to my dismay, she wasn't responding...i don't know if she too was stunned, or if she lost consciousness, but it took her a little while to actually start crying, and even when she did, her body still felt limp, and i was totally freaked out...we couldn't find any lacerations on her head, or even a bump (she was wearing a hat that must have provided some padding), but the impact of the fall was so alarmingly hard that i thought for sure she'd have permanent brain damage...i called our doctor's office to page the doctor on call, and she told us to take her in to the emergency room just to be on the safe side...she thought cadence was okay because she wasn't vomitting and she actually got up on her feet when ted put her down to check her range of motion...

since we didn't even have a diaper bag, we had to go home first...cadence seemed to be doing fine, so i decided to get a 2nd opinion and called an old family friend and doctor dr. shin...he too asked about vomitting, and when i told him she wasn't throwing up and that she seemed okay, he said she was probably fine but to watch her and if she started crying a lot or vomitting to go to the emergency room...so we went home and weren't planning on putting her and ourselves through the added stress of a visit to the ER and just hoped she'd be fine...but about 40 minutes after the fall, she started getting fussy and crying and looking kind of sick....that's when she threw up all over herself and me...that was the most she'd ever puked in her life, and it scared the crap out of me...somehow we managed to get ourselved changed, packed a bag and headed for the ER...4 hours and a CAT scan later, we were told everything was fine and given the green light to go home...we didn't get to bed that night until about 4am...

i don't know what i'd have done if things weren't okay...i know we would have managed, but it would have broken my heart if anything had happened to hurt cadence long-term...even now, i still hope and pray that she'll heal from this completely...

it just goes to show that your whole life can change in a flash...we take so much for granted everyday, and as cheesy as it sounds, each new day really is a gift...i for one hope to make the best of what i'm given...