Afternoon phonecalls.

I was at home yesterday afternoon, sleeping this stomach bug away, when the phone rang. I sleepily glanced at the caller ID to see who it was, and came wide awake immediately when I saw that it was the daycare center. There is no good reason for the daycare to be calling me in the middle of the day. However, the teachers are very experienced so the first thing they say is that it is not an emergency... then they explain that Juliette fell down and scraped her cheek. They washed it out, put ice on it, and gave her a bandaid, and I could hear her laughing in the background so I figured it couldn't have been that bad. "No, it's not bad, but we didn't want you to freak out when you came to get her and saw the bandaid on her face." Oh, OK, thanks. Hang up the phone, back to sleep.

When I went to pick her up, though, I sort of freaked out. My mom was with me, and I forgot to warn her, so she freaked out first, and I was preoccupied with calming her down, and therefore maintained a certain level of control. But it did look kinda bad. Her whole right cheek was covered with a very large bandaid. I got her home and peeled it off (the grab and yank maneuver) and while she protested loudly, I examined the wound. It is just a surface scratch, really nothing serious. But it is so red. I began to worry; this is her face, her adorable, inquistive, flawless face. I don't want any scars to form, or anything. What should I do? Band aid on, or band aid off? Should I call the doctor? What is an appropriate amount of alarm, in these situations, anyway? There is another mother in the daycare who has two boys of the same ages as Juliette and Cosette. I don't know her very well, other then the polite small talk as we pass by, kids in tow. But I have overheard her conversations with the daycare teachers and I can tell you this: she is a control freak. Her son can play in only a certain area of the playground, nowhere near the pavement, and where did that scratch come from (a scratch no one else could see) and he should have been fed at 3:00 not 3:10 and on an on and on. I've seen her husband with her a few times, and the man looks miserable. Seriously, never a smile on the face, hunched over in a defeatest pose. I do not want to be like that. But I don't want to be the kind of person that is neglectful, either. Greg is good at keeping things in perspective, but he is at work and I can't ask him, so instead I sit and dwell on it. Aaggh.. I've said this before, and I'll say it again; sometimes, the hardest thing to know is when not to worry.