Do You Want Your Palm Red - Part 2

I know what you're thinking, if you are a regular visitor to my blog. You're thinking, "Oh no, the kids got into the model paints downstairs again, and Mark is going for the duct tape." No, not this time. In fact, that shouldn't even be possible, because I tossed the model paints in the garbage can after the last incident. No, today was a little bit more disconcerting.

Esther likes to come out and sleep with me in the middle of the night. When I woke up this morning, Susie was feeding the younger two breakfast, and Esther was asleep on my lap, with her face turned away from me. My stomach eventually informed me that it would like breakfast, so I moved Esther to a different part of the chair and got up. This was enough to wake her, and she sat up and looked at me.

As I looked at Esther, I noticed that there were red streaks all over her face, and up into her hair. And this time it wasn't paint! But she didn't appear to be in pain. In particular, there was no weeping, wailing, or screaming at the top of her lungs, as would be typical of an Esther-in-pain situation. So the Spirit helped me to keep my head, and I asked Esther how she was feeling. Her answer: "Hungry." As she approached me, I noticed larger portions of dried blood around her nose and the top of her head where her hair parts. So I gently led her to the bathroom to get cleaned up and to see if there were any injuries that turned up during the night.

Fortunately, there was no major harm done. Turns out that Esther had a nosebleed in the middle of the night (I understand that those can be common in small children from time to time). She confirmed this by describing that "blood came out of the holes in my nose" :)

I presume she must have fallen asleep in such a position that the nosebleed went from her nose to the top of her head, hence the large amount of dried blood up there. I gently cleaned off her face with a washcloth, and then tossed her (not literally) into the tub to clean up her hair. Although the amount of blood was small, it takes a surprising amount of time to clean it out of hair!

I had to clear the water out of the tub and re-run it a couple of times. This resulted in Lizzie banging on the door and saying something in her toddler speak, as if to ask why I was running water in the bathtub without inviting her.

In any case, I am grateful that no harm came to my daughter. It was definitely not the way I would have chosen to start my day, but I am grateful that she wasn't seriously injured.