A birthday cut
It is the night before Lydia's birthday and Yang and I are sitting in the bread store trying to decide to have a snack in the store or just go home. Yang's new cell phone rings but she doesn't answer it because it is in my back pocket and the phone sounds like something a 13 year old village girl would have. I continue on the great stay/go debate when Yang asks for her phone, sees the Ayi called, calls back, and gets up with more speed than a nine month pregnant woman should have. She is still quite slow, so I am able to catch up and ask who's called and she says "Lydia's been hurt" and then Yang is out the back door and we see our Ayi holding Lydia near the playground behind the bakery. We see some blood in a cloth and Lydia has a gash under her chin, right away it is obvious that she will need stitches. Yang calls ahead to the hospital where the kids get their check ups and where Elisa will be born (any day now) and finds out they don't take this kind of emergency. Luckily, another very western style hospital is a block away from our house and they have a full service emergency room. American, white doctor, chinese nurses speaking excellent English, and Lydia all stitched up within an hour. Aidan's eyes swelled up when retelling the story of how Lydia got the cut. Lydia was very strong when getting the stitches and while she let us know she good feel the pain, she kept the wiggling and fussing to a minimum. The whole thing cost 3800 kuai (about $550 USD) and my insurance covered it. A year ago, the insurance I had would not of covered it so it is lucky Lydia decided to crack that chin this year. Yang told the Ayi the cost and the Ayi said that in her hometown, the cost of a c-section is less than half what these few stitches cost.
Lydia's cut before and after stitches.
The next day was her birthday. Hard to believe she is four. I took off from work a bit early and found her napping when I got home. She napped and napped and napped. Seems being four is exhausting. Eventually she woke up and I took her by myself to fetch her present. I let her pick out any bike she wanted and surprise, surprise, she picked the pink one. She was pretty happy to be getting the special treatment. She enjoyed her baskin robbins ice cream cake, her ballerina dress, and her new pink dress from the American grandparents. It was off to Thai food with the family and a couple of friends. Lydia showing anyone who would look, her new bandage. Lydia dancing with the Thai dancers and the older daughters of the friends who came with us.