Yes, Well, We'll Have to Think About That One

Lydia had a rough evening yesterday. I had a rough evening because Lydia had a rough evening. And Brian had a rough evening because Lydia and I had a rough evening.

It started out as a pretty good afternoon, actually. I picked Lydia up from Leah's house, and despite having an early nap, she was in a pretty good mood. I managed to get the kitchen cleaned before Lydia wanted my full attention. We played in the living room and then painted rainbows (Lydia loves painting her hands and making handprints). Then, Lydia got fussy. I put her in her crib with her pacifiers and blankets and I laid down on the floor near her. She rested for a good 20 minutes before she started moving around and standing up. So, after about 45 minutes in the crib, I let her out.

Brian called to let me know he was leaving work, so I got Lydia dressed in her Easter dress (thankfully Leah had fixed her hair super cute and it still looked nice), packed snacks, drinks, camera, Easter baskets, and eggs and got ready to meet Brian at church for bluebonnet pictures. By this time, Lydia was getting fussy again, but I figured once we got outside, she'd have some fun.

Brian and I arrived at the church at just about the same time. Lydia wanted to immediately explore the flowers, but wasn't interested in posing the way we wanted her to. After only a few pictures, Lydia fell. I picked her up and realized she had fallen on a cactus! She was crying, so we started looking to see if she had any cactus needles in her. We found one in her foot and took it out, but she was still crying. We looked for more. I lifted her dress up and saw a whole patch of needles under her left thigh! Now both Lydia and I were crying!

We put her in the car and I held her legs down while Brian got out his Leatherman to get the needles out. Lydia is one strong toddler! It took us both to hold her legs down so she'd stay still. The whole time she's screaming and crying and I'm crying because my baby is crying! Brian was able to get out the big needles, but Lydia was moving too much and he needed smaller tweezers for the small needles. We called to see if my parents were home, and then rushed over to their house.

My dad is an expert splinter and needle remover, so we knew he'd be able to help out. It took Brian and my mom holding Lydia's legs, and me holding her arms and upper body to keep her still so my dad could get the needles out. Lydia was very upset afterwards and now has red marks on her thigh from the needles. We took off her dress and cuddled on the couch for a bit. Then Brian and my dad took her outside and she calmed down.

After mom and I started dinner, we got Lydia dressed again and put leashes on the dogs to walk over to a small patch of bluebonnets in my parent's neighborhood. As soon as Lydia saw the bluebonnets, she started crying and refused to go near them! We were able to convince her to take a few pictures with the flowers by getting Denzel in with her and making her laugh. Despite her mishap with a cactus, we managed to get a lot of great pictures of Lydia with the bluebonnets!

I think it is the hardest thing ever to watch your child in pain. I can barely handle it when Lydia gets shots at the doctor's or falls and scrapes her knees. I cried when she got sick and was throwing up. I hate seeing her in pain and not being able to help. And, what made the cactus needles worse, was the fact that holding her down scared her and using tweezers caused some pain.

If I had been by myself with her and she had fallen on a cactus, I would hope I'd be able to keep myself together for her sake. I know my crying scared her (good thing I was wearing sunglasses!) and I tried to stop, but it was hard. Brian was good and kept himself together and was calm and collected the whole time. I don't know how I'll handle anything worse than cactus needles!

Lydia in 2011 and in 2012.