Baby Girl's Accident, OR How to Turn an Injury Into an Advantage

Baby Girl had a little mishap with the closet door.

As in, her brother slammed it on her finger AND SNAPPED THE END OFF IT.

I won’t take you through the bleeding and the screaming, or the ER trip and the seemingly interminable wait to see a doctor.

Long story short: Baby Girl has lost the top of her right ring finger (about half of the top joint) and her whole arm is in a cast.

(Her whole arm is encased so she’s less likely to try to rip the cast off. Yes, it’s like putting a cone on a dog’s head. Come to think of it, treating preschoolers IS kind of like treating dogs, I guess.)

While we were at the hospital a Nice Lady came to see Baby Girl.

They called her a Child Life Consultant, but she appears to be a professional Nice Lady.

She brought in two new toys for Baby Girl to choose from. She said they are donated from the Disney corporation for kids at military hospitals.

I know, right? Kudos to you, Disney! You’re not as soul-less as they say!

So the Nice Lady said Baby Girl could choose Jasmine or Cinderella.

This was a difficult decision.

Finally Baby Girl chose Jasmine and the Nice Lady opened the packaging. This is probably the hardest part of being the Nice Lady, since the factory packages dolls as if they are expecting the toys to have to survive the apocalypse.

After that the Nice Lady asked us about our feelings, and if we needed help, et cetera.

I said we were fine and didn’t need anything right then.

We chatted a few minutes and then the Nice Lady asked Baby Girl if she needed anything else.

Baby Girl looked at her and said, “Yes, I do.”

“Oh!” said the Nice Lady. “What can I get you?”

Baby Girl pointed at the other toy. “Cinderella,” she said.

I laughed. “You asked!” I reminded the Nice Lady.

By the way, she only got to keep Jasmine. It was only one finger, after all.