I feel like three months of chaos must be nearing its end. I mean, it's got to end, doesn't it?!
Last week, we drove up to Dunkirk for Paul's grandmother's funeral. Paul caught a cold while we were there and was feeling pretty lousy for the first half of the week. I thought I was just suffering the aftermath of allergies, but last night I really started to feel awful, as if I were under water. As I'm lying on the couch after dinner, about to nod off, I am vaguely aware of this:
Alex calls Paul a Bobo and falls in front of the couch.
Paul says, "That was close. [Alex gets up and takes a step backwards] No. Don't do that again. You'll get hurt."
There's a bang as Alex falls in front of the couch again.
Paul jumps out of the recliner to get him, and heads off towards the kitchen. "You'll probably need stitches for that. Jess, I need your help."
Turns out Alex was balancing on my crocs and jumping off. The second time he landed full on his chin on the edge of the coffee table and got himself a nice little gash. I'm pretty squeamish, so I was glad it wasn't a mouth injury. He had a relatively clean cut on his chin, at least half an inch long, but it was a pretty neat scene. Alex refused to let us hold an ice cube on it, so I slapped a band-aid on it and we all bundled up to head to the walk-in clinic. I was hoping they could just slap a butterfly on it and we could avoid stitches. It was thirty minutes to bedtime, naturally.
This was our first visit to the walk-in clinic, and I was quite impressed. In fact, I liked the doctor so much I would have considered switching to him -- except he only works the clinic. They had a nurse look at Alex right away to be sure it was an injury they could treat. The nurse's first impression was that we'd have to get him to the ER if we wanted to minimize the scar, but she called the doc over and he said it was in a fine location for this Dermabond stuff they use -- essentially super glue. That sounded far less traumatic for everyone involved than stitches, so we happily waited.
Alex was very, very good, and let us hold this stuff that was supposed to numb his chin a bit (it had to be held on his chin for TEN MINUTES), and held nice and still for the nurse and doctor while they cleaned and dressed his wound. I think they were relieved to have such a model patient. Several times they turned to me to say, in hushed tones of disbelief, "He's being so good!" To speed drying, they used a litlte battery-operated fan; I was surprised Alex didn't try to grab it to check it out. It's just the kind of thing he'd love.
Since we were already there I inquired about his flu shot and he got that done, too. (It seemed sort of cruel to put him through further agony, but it was convenient and ultimately in his best interest, so there it was.) Then, because he got the shot, he got a book, and the nurse liked him so much she gave him two books, one shaped like a bulldozer and one shaped like a tractor.
Alex has been pretty fascinated with boo-boos since his last accident, so he did remind me several times today that he had a boo-boo on his chin and that it hurt. I was afraid I was too sick to give it proper kisses, so I blew kisses and that seemed to satisy him. He's quite a trooper.
For as good and generally cautious a kid as he is, this was our fourth major incident and he's not even two yet!
Last week, we drove up to Dunkirk for Paul's grandmother's funeral. Paul caught a cold while we were there and was feeling pretty lousy for the first half of the week. I thought I was just suffering the aftermath of allergies, but last night I really started to feel awful, as if I were under water. As I'm lying on the couch after dinner, about to nod off, I am vaguely aware of this:
Alex calls Paul a Bobo and falls in front of the couch.
Paul says, "That was close. [Alex gets up and takes a step backwards] No. Don't do that again. You'll get hurt."
There's a bang as Alex falls in front of the couch again.
Paul jumps out of the recliner to get him, and heads off towards the kitchen. "You'll probably need stitches for that. Jess, I need your help."
Turns out Alex was balancing on my crocs and jumping off. The second time he landed full on his chin on the edge of the coffee table and got himself a nice little gash. I'm pretty squeamish, so I was glad it wasn't a mouth injury. He had a relatively clean cut on his chin, at least half an inch long, but it was a pretty neat scene. Alex refused to let us hold an ice cube on it, so I slapped a band-aid on it and we all bundled up to head to the walk-in clinic. I was hoping they could just slap a butterfly on it and we could avoid stitches. It was thirty minutes to bedtime, naturally.
This was our first visit to the walk-in clinic, and I was quite impressed. In fact, I liked the doctor so much I would have considered switching to him -- except he only works the clinic. They had a nurse look at Alex right away to be sure it was an injury they could treat. The nurse's first impression was that we'd have to get him to the ER if we wanted to minimize the scar, but she called the doc over and he said it was in a fine location for this Dermabond stuff they use -- essentially super glue. That sounded far less traumatic for everyone involved than stitches, so we happily waited.
Alex was very, very good, and let us hold this stuff that was supposed to numb his chin a bit (it had to be held on his chin for TEN MINUTES), and held nice and still for the nurse and doctor while they cleaned and dressed his wound. I think they were relieved to have such a model patient. Several times they turned to me to say, in hushed tones of disbelief, "He's being so good!" To speed drying, they used a litlte battery-operated fan; I was surprised Alex didn't try to grab it to check it out. It's just the kind of thing he'd love.
Since we were already there I inquired about his flu shot and he got that done, too. (It seemed sort of cruel to put him through further agony, but it was convenient and ultimately in his best interest, so there it was.) Then, because he got the shot, he got a book, and the nurse liked him so much she gave him two books, one shaped like a bulldozer and one shaped like a tractor.
Alex has been pretty fascinated with boo-boos since his last accident, so he did remind me several times today that he had a boo-boo on his chin and that it hurt. I was afraid I was too sick to give it proper kisses, so I blew kisses and that seemed to satisy him. He's quite a trooper.
For as good and generally cautious a kid as he is, this was our fourth major incident and he's not even two yet!
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