D.R.A.M.A.

Ahhhhh 2012. You've only been here four glorious days and already you're full of surprises. We are trying very hard to have a drama-free existence here in California and so far this year we are failing miserably. Let me give you a brief rundown of the past few days...

January 1st - Summa family spends the night on the floor of the Phoenix airport. After arriving in Phoneix from Tampa, we board our plane and fly to San Diego only to be rerouted BACK to Phoenix due to fog. Upon arrival, we find out we won't be able to catch another flight until 5:15am the next morning. Seeing that it's now 1am, we decided to tough it out at the airport. Cue entire family curling up on the (disgusting, disgusting) floor of the airport and covering ourselves in sweatshirts/paper towels/scarves, etc. At roughly 3am, we find out our new flight is delayed...until 10am. Long story short, we finally made it home after a 15+ hour journey. Never have I been so happy to take a shower.

 We found a place for the kid's to play. Note exhausted hubby in the background. 

January 2nd - Spend the day at Sea World (read: racked with guilt that our poor kids had such an ordeal at the airport.) Day is pretty drama-free. Hooray!

January 3rd - Out of groceries and decide to make a trip to Trader Joe's. As I'm reaching for some crackers, I hear this horrible commotion behind me and turn to see what happened. Mac had grabbed the side of the shopping cart and tried to pull himself up. Instead, he pulled the entire cart down on top of him. Paige, poor dear, is sitting in the top of the cart and goes flying. Mac (thank God!) is fine. Paige...is not. I immediately notice that she's bleeding and then see there's something stuck. In her nostril. Suddenly I look around and realize the necklace she had been wearing is broken all over the floor. She has a bead - a HUGE bead - stuck in her nose. I try to push it out and then realize that her nostril is torn. Badly.

Princess wearing her beloved but ill-fated necklace a few days earlier at the park

[WARNING: The following material is graphic and heartbreaking in nature and may cause a combination of nausea and spontaneous crying. Proceed with caution!]

Paige. With the bead. In her nose.  

*I did not take this picture. Couldn't bear. Husband, on the other hand, rationalized this would be a good story someday. We'll see.*

So I rush Paige to Urgent Care. They remove the bead and tell me they are worried about the cut. I have to take her to Rady Children's Hospital. Dan takes Mac home while I shuttle Paige over to the hospital. Fast forward three hours - the doctor tells me Paige is going to need some stitches. And a plastic surgeon. And to be sedated. At this point, I'm sobbing. Luckily Rady's is a fantastic facility and the staff are all so kind and courteous. They see crying children and parents all the time and do their best to make us both feel better.

 Waiting for the doctor

 Paige post-op immediately requested her cell phone

 Both of us trying so hard to be brave and not cry

January 4th - My beautiful princess is now in recovery mode. She fought the doctors and nurses like a true warrior but they still managed to do a nice job sewing her up. We're off to see the plastic surgeon again tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have a good report. For now, she's back to her happy, normal self. I, on the other hand, have a terrible scar on my heart that I'm not sure will go away any time soon.

Oh, 2012. Please, please be kind to our little family for the duration of the year. We've had enough drama to last us a lifetime!