Week of boo-boos

It started Thursday. Our child care provider left me a voice mail that her son had conked his head and was bleeding. She was on the way to the emergency care facility and would be late. Of course, I didn't expect her to come in while nursing her son's head wound. T came home for the afternoon to watch the kids.

The injuries continued tonight. We were making black bean-corn-sauteed onion quesadillas. They were wonderful, eventually. But, first T was trying to slice onions on a mandolin. You slide an onion or egg or potato or whatever over a blade. Suddenly he yelled and swore and started clutching his bloody thumb. My stomach is turning again as I type this. He had sliced off the side of the tip of his thumb. We found the little piece of flesh in the pile of onions later. He was bleeding like crazy and went to call a nursing line to find out if he should get stitches. They said to just apply pressure and take Tylenol. It bled for hours, but finally let up.

Meanwhile, I finished the quesadillas and then we sat down to eat. Q was throwing a fit. He was screaming and trying to climb on T which wasn't working as T nursed his injured thumb. T took Q up for some quiet time in his bed, and our next scare happened. As I was nibbling my quesadilla, I heard a loud thump and T yelling "Noooo!" My stomach dropped to my toes, and I sprinted up the stairs. T was holding a crying Q. Q had apparently flipped out of his bed landing on his head. I held him for a few minutes, and he quieted down. He seemed OK, but we nervously watched him closely to see if he hurt himself. I was shaking for about half an hour.

Throughout the day, baby R was also screaming. It was a guttural cry with his eyes and fist clenched. We are pretty sure his acid reflux was bothering him. All in all, it was a rough, painful day in more ways than one. I hate my kids being in pain and am terrified of one of them getting seriously hurt. It seems like it can happen so easily and innocently. So much of parenting is just keeping your children from hurting themselves, and sometimes you can't prevent it no matter what you do. That terrifies me.

--MM