They look cute, but it's all a trap...

Here is Elizabeth's beautiful forehead as it is supposed to look:

We were at Animal Kingdom, way in the back, on one of the exploration trails. We were in the Meerkat exhibit, with what felt like half the population of guests at the park that day. It was a beautiful day, and also an Extra Magic Hours day for Disney Resort guests, so of course there were a lot of people there. I would like to pause here and say that of course this was relative. Crowded in February is not at all the same as crowded in June. But still, the Meerkat exhibit was hopping, and I would have moved us along, but the girls LOVE Meerkats. I had no idea they did until we found the exhibit at the Tampa Zoo and were unable to move past it for way too long.

So yes, the Meerkats lured us all in with their evil cuteness, and of course there were tons of people all looking at them the same time. So Elizabeth, who is not as pushy as Lilli (who had barreled her way to the front shoving people's knees aside with abandon), couldn't see. David picked her up and climbed up on a central platform that was about thigh high on an adult, and they watched for a while. Well, I was listening to the cast member talk about what all the various Meerkats were up to, when I, and everyone in the exhibit, heard a horrible THWACK. We all turned at once, but I had the unfortunate advantage of having a reeeeally good idea what that sound meant, and who had caused it, before I even turned around.

It seems that Elizabeth had decided to try to Lilli her way to the front of the enclosure, and David had set her down on the central platform so she could climb down instead of putting her on the ground. Although she has been a little bit more clumsy than normal lately, due to her latest growth spurt, this is not a task that she normally would have found difficult. But this time, she slipped. Not only did she slip, she slipped so fast that she didn't even have time to try to catch herself. She fell flat on her face from almost 3 feet up in the air.

Of course she was sobbing. By the time I pried Lilli away from the Meerkats, because Lilli was probably the only person there who hadn't seen or heard the splat, it was obvious that some damage had been done. I didn't know if we had a concussion, a broken nose, or broken teeth to deal with, and the delay in removing Lilli had me a little upset at the world. I got directions to first aid, which was much farther away than necessary (that's how I felt at the moment, it's actually a lovely centrally located facility), and we hustled over there as fast as possible.

It was clear to the doctor on staff when we arrived what the nature of our visit was (obvious head bump and Elizabeth's first nose bleed), and we went straight into a room. The doctor was very nice and gently cleaned Elizabeth up. We ruled out a broken nose (it was probably protected by Elizabeth's giant forehead. Yay for giant foreheads!) or teeth. Then she started trying to determine if Elizabeth had a concussion. She asked Elizabeth several questions, and to each one, Elizabeth kept saying "I don't know! I can't tell you!" Of course, that freaked me out. I kept flashing back to this girl I knew in 3rd grade, who had been a really nice girl, and then after a basketball knocked her head into the playground blacktop and gave her a concussion, and she had to relearn how to walk and talk, she was never the same nice girl again. I asked Elizabeth, "Do you really not know? Or do you just not want to say?" She said "I just don't want to say!" The doctor said that she would step out for a minute so Elizabeth could calm down. And I told Elizabeth that we were trying to figure out if she needed to go to the hospital, and that she was going to have to answer my questions whether she liked it or not. So she cooperated, and we all felt much better because her ability to do that combined with the fact that she had not lost consciousness mostly ruled out a concussion. Interestingly, whenever Elizabeth hears me tell someone about this whole experience, she always says "Don't forget! She gave me some water!" I guess she feels that was a very significant part of her treatment.

The doctor hooked us up with antibiotic ointment, giant bandaids, materials for more ice packs, and literature on what to watch for in case Elizabeth actually did have a concussion, and turned us loose. We asked Elizabeth if she wanted to go back to the hotel and rest, and she said that she wanted to stay at Animal Kingdom. But she was hugging David at the time, and fell asleep:

The doctor had said it was ok if Elizabeth took a nap, so David hung out with her on a bench, and I took Lilli character hunting. We were very successful, and were met in an hour or so by a much restored Elizabeth. She'd had a good nap and a popsicle, and while still a little groggy, was in a good mood and ready to go on the Safari. She was even willing to pose with her big booboo.

I enjoyed that whenever she used her hands to demonstrate the size of her booboo to inquiring cast members during the rest of our stay, that the bandaid covered booboo grew with every telling, until it eventually had grown to a size bigger than her whole forehead.

Elizabeth's favorite part of visiting the doctor might have been the water, but the doctor also gave us a voucher for the girls to pick out a couple of trading pins (Elizabeth for bravery, Lilli for being a good sister and keeping Elizabeth company), and both girls really enjoyed picking them out. They took forever to do it, but were very happy with their choices. Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure for Elizabeth, Winnie the Pooh for Lilli. Yes, these pictures are poor quality.

I was just happy that Elizabeth was soon back to her old self, and that now, almost a week later, she's almost entirely healed.

I'm still a little bit angry at the Meerkats though.