Weekend Kat Blogging: Finished Quilt–And A Nightmare

We picked up Kat’s quilt from the woman who does the professional long-arm quilting (machine quilting on a large machine that allows easy, free-motion designs full of simple or complex curves and whorls) in Nelsonville on Wednesday.

As you can see, Kat loves it, and has been cuddling it at least a little bit every day.

She has been developing by leaps and bounds all week. She has been bouncing up and down, holding on to furniture or our hands, working on standing up. She doesn’t do the “bear walk” where she gets up on hands and feet, and then climbs upward. She squats and in a very controlled fashion, pushes upward until she is standing.

And yesterday–she did it without holding on to anything. She just popped up for a few seconds, and then, instead of falling down, she eased herself down using her leg muscles. She is so close to walking!

And then, last night, the nightmare–I was at work, expediting and cooking during a huge rush, my mind racing with a bunch of split second details, running back and forth between dupes (the papers orders are written on) and the line, the oven, the rice cooker, the bread griddle–when Zak called.

And in measured, very even, and to my ears, hideously SLOW (when your mind races as fast as mine does during a rush, everything that has no urgency to it is slow) words, told me that Kat had fallen off the bed onto her head. He was just outside the door with the baby monitor when it happened, and she wasn’t knocked out, and she was acting fine, but he didn’t really know what to do.

I at first told him to watch her, to check her pupils for dialation, to feed her and see if she is nauseous, watch for vomiting or extreme sleepiness, inconsolable crying. I got off the phone and went outside just to, well, calm down for a minute, because I could feel the panic rising in my throat, and the tears gathering, and Becky, one of our best waitresses, and Leah, the bellydancer, both of whom are moms themselves, saw my face, and asked what was wrong, so I told them, and Becky said, “Don’t be stubborn–go check on her, and if you have to take her to the hospital, go. We have two cooks besides you, and we will be fine.”

So–I went to jump in my car, but it was blocked in by two other cars–one of which was Leah’s, which was fine, because she could move it–and the other–belonged to another person who worked at Salaam who was not on shift, but was somewhere downtown doing something, and so wasn’t available to move the car for me.

So–I got pissed. And I cursed, not too loudly. Stacia, one of the other waitresses, let me borrow her car to get home, which I did, and I checked on Kat.

Looking at her, I figured it was just a bruise on her head and a scrape on her nose, but I didn’t want to take that risk. Zak and I decided to take her to the ER. So, I drove back to Salaam, dropped off Stacia’s car–God bless her–and told everyone what was up, and then Zak picked me up outside and off to the hospital we went.

And it turns out–we were there for about three hours, it being a Saturday night at the ER–that Kat was fine, just as I thought. And she did lots of standing–supported and unsupported, and laughing and smiling. She was good when the doctor examined her–she didn’t cry or freak out–and she did a lot of supported walking. And dancing. And jumping up and down.

We came home and she ate some pizza with us for dinner (there was no way I was going to cook, or Morganna was–she had to expedite after I left, and it was her first time!), and then refused to sleep. Until long after five in the morning, she refused to sleep. I think she got an adrenaline rush from the terror of falling on her face, and literally couldn’t sleep.

But, after eight hours of sleep–she woke up smiling and happy, and has been in a great mood all day.

She just has a red nose–she basically got a case of rug burn on it.

So, all is well. But it was really scary, as any parent can understand.

The whole incident also reminded me of why I love working with restaurant people–they are like your family, and when something bad happens, they are right there for you. Not every workplace is like that–not every restaurant–but most of them are. The best restaurant workers, both front and back of the house, have a genuine love of people–and it shows not only in their customer service, but in how they treat each other with respect and love, and will pitch in to help out when something goes awry.

5 Comments »

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1. I’m so glad she’s OK! I did the same thing when I was that age and scared the daylights out of my folks, too.

   Comment by Cindy — April 20, 2008 #

2. I’m glad she and her mom are both okay I LOVE her toes in that picture!

   Comment by Lisa — April 20, 2008 #

3. Oh, how scary!

   Glad you’re all ok.

   Comment by Charlotte — April 20, 2008 #

4. Oh, how scary!

   Glad you’re all ok.

   Comment by Charlotte — April 20, 2008 #

5. Glad she was all right.

   My youngest got a concussion when he was about two falling off a small climbing gym - spent a night at the ER and watching over him in a hotel room, since we were on a trip. Scary stuff.

   You did the right thing to have her checked - you never know.

   Comment by donna — April 21, 2008 #

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