Despite a rather uneventful string of years, my heart still skips a beat when I see the daycare provider’s name on my caller ID. Usually, it’s the result of a slight fever or some errant vomit—nothing major, ever.

Today, though, Olivia’s daycare provider gave me quite a start: She called at 4 pm to say, “I just don’t want you to be alarmed when you first see Olivia this afternoon…”

My mind was racing. I immediately reasoned it couldn’t be that bad—she wasn’t asking me to meet her in the emergency room. She was just preparing me for a slight, but unfortunately located, scrape.

Apparently, Olivia managed to scrape her entire nose. She covered all 180 degrees, in one solid scratch that missed her lips and continued under her chin.

Olivia was upset about the injury, but to add insult, blood kept leaking on to her lovey. As you probably guessed, she had it held to her nose to comfort herself.

By the time I arrived to pick her up, she was playing happily. Thanks to the heads-up I had received, my reaction was just laughter.

Only a daughter of mine could accomplish such a feat.

The light is pretty forgiving lighting here, and so it doesn’t look too bad. Still, she has a few days of Neosporin ahead of her. I don’t think a Dora Band-Aid will work this time, though.