When in doubt, medicate

Laurel fell - HARD - the other day at Burger King. We had gone there to see what their playland was like as the McDonalds we've been to a couple times doesn't have much for Laurel to do. It's a shame because she is perfectly capable of handling all the equipment, but she's too small to climb up the levels. So I've been on a hunt lately to find a free playland that has stuff for both big and little kids. Burger King was my hope.

Unfortunately, theirs was even worse. Not only did it have nothing good for Laurel, but the upper level where all the big kids played was completely visible from below, which meant she had to sit at the table with boring ol' mom and watch her brother have loads fun. Not good. She was asking to leave within a few minutes of arriving.

And then she fell. I don't know how she did it, one minute she was sitting on the bench with me and the next she had fallen backwards and landed flat on her head and back. ON THE CEMENT FLOOR. It was so bad the other adults in the room gasped, and one of them ran to get the manager. I picked Laurel up and tried to comfort her, but she was out of control. I paced and paced and cooed and hummed and rocked, but it did nothing. I don't think Laurel had ever screamed for so long before. I assumed a Cadillac-sized lump would develop on her head and kept feeling around for it, but nothing appeared. I couldn't find anything wrong with her body either.

After what felt like forever (but was probably only ten minutes), she pulled herself together. Her bunny was in the car and I figured the sooner we could get to it the better. So once she was able to handle having her shoes put on without bursting into tears, we left. We walked to the car and I got her into her car seat where she gratefully reached for her bunny like a drowning man. I stood there and rubbed her hair and felt around her head and torso. Still puzzled that I couldn't find ANY injuries, I decided to go out on a limb and ask Laurel if she was hurt anywhere.

"Laurel, do you have any owwies?"

Laurel paused and let Bunny fall to the floor of the car. Her eyes studiously scanned her body and seemed to contemplate for a minute. Then she raised up her hand and pointed to a barely noticeable, week-old scab on her shin. "Da!" she wailed.

I gave her ibuprofen anyway.