Last Saturday, Sophia was with her ama reading some textbooks from school inside her room which is at the second floor of the house. I was downstairs, at the dining room specifically, fixing our lunch when suddenly I heard a loud bang/sound and saw Sophia’s “baby stairway gate” which was located at the top of our stairs fall. The next thing I knew, one of Sophia’s slipper was already in front of me. I was shocked. I thought Sophia fell too! I almost had a heart attack, I swear even if I wasn’t sure yet if she really fell. I ran upstairs and saw her sitting on the uppermost step of the stairs shocked also. Thank God she did not fall with the baby gate. Apparently, her ama said, Sophia ran outside her room and wanted to go down so she pushed the stair gate. I am guessing because of wear and tear, the stair gate probably has loosened screws so she was able to push it with ease that fast.

The dad who was in our room that time came out and carried her as she started crying after seeing me so worried. All the while we thought that was it not until when Sophia’s yaya saw blood on the floor. We started searching for a wound and there we saw her right foot bleeding. The cut was an inch big. Maybe a part of the stair gate hit her foot before falling. I immediately got cotton balls with Betadine and applied it on the wound. After a while, it stopped bleeding so even if we had doubts of the wound being deep and was thinking of taking her to the ER to make sure, we decided against it. Wrong.

The next day, Sunday, the wound was fine but by Monday, after the Mother’s Day Program of Rosemont at Alabang Country Club, it bled again. Maybe because of Sophia’s walking or something, I don’t know so we immediately took her to Asian Hospital’s ER. The doctor on duty told me that the wound should have been stitched as it was a bit deep. Hay, I never felt so guilty in my life. I knew I shouldn’t have taken it for granted. Moreso, the doctor said that it was prone to infection so he prescribed an antibiotic, a very high dose at that because it has been two days already according to him. He even cited Tetanus as another concern so he asked me if Sophia is complete with all her vaccine shots. To confirm, he wanted me to call her pedia but that time her pedia was in HK so I was again in panic. But I’m pretty sure she’s complete with her vaccines as you might all know by now, her pedia is Jon’s tita.

The doctor then gave me an alternative, we can have it stitched for it to heal better and faster but they have to cut the wound again. Oh no! No way. I said I’d rather have the wound heal longer than usual as he said it was safe naman not to have it stitched but better lang if it was.

Here’s Sophia while at the ER after the doctor attended to her.

Now looking back, I should have known better. I always say that better to be safe than sorry but what was I thinking? Why didn’t I take her to the ER right away? If you ask the husband though, he thinks otherwise, he said that he would rather not take Sophia to the ER as he doesn’t want her to get the stitches. Weird huh?

Our friends love taking their kids to our house all the time. Aside from having a large garden to run around, the kids also have fun playing at Sophia’s playhouse complete with a slide and a tunnel. The slide is too small for Sophia and the other kids now though so the husband has been looking for alternative slides to buy and set up in the garden beside the playhouse. And with the arrival of the new baby soon, we are also thinking of acquiring additional playground equipment which I’m sure the kids (our friends’ and our own) will love. I bet our friends’ kids will frequent our house more often than they used to when we finally get these extra stuff which is good as Sophia loves having them around as she usually needs to content herself playing with the yaya all the time. Soon though, she will have her own and permanent playmate in the presence of her coming baby brother.

She also has been requesting for a swing by the way and I have seen really nice ones at http://www.swingset.com/. I like the idea and I’m thinking of getting two swings actually - a baby swing for our baby boy and a swing belt or sling for her, the big sister soon.

Jon’s “ama” (grandmother in Chinese) is celebrating her 82nd birthday soon. I have long been thinking of what to give her but couldn’t decide on anything. Since she is obviously of old age already, I don’t think she’ll find use for any other material things I have in mind. Besides, she already has everything!

My mom suggested though that we get her Medical Alert instead as this would be very useful for her. Since “ama” is usually home with just the maids the whole day on a very big house, she can get complete protection and help instantly if something happens to her. You see, Jon’s auntie who lives with her goes to work every single day and does not come home until late in the evenings so “ama” is literally all on her own most of the time. As you all would agree too, we cannot count on the maids all the time, right? With Medical Alert, her loved ones need not worry all the time as home and emergency response system is available. I am now wondering if I should get the one for the home which is the Fall Alert detector or the GPS Tracking Bracelet. But since “ama” is just usually home, might just settle for the Fall Alert detector which I think she can utilize more.

I am sure Jon would be delighted with this Medical Alert gift idea of mine as its truly what his “ama” needs these times.