Lessons

In the spirit of learning something new everyday, yesterday I learned that reverse cannonballs off the steps going into the swimming pool are a great way to split your chin open and expose all the underlying fat layer, requiring 3 stitches and a 4 hour ER visit to the brand new Dell Children's Medical Center. While we were at the hospital no less than 8 people asked us to describe the accident. Sometimes they asked me, sometimes they asked Little A. He was a bit too overwhelmed to answer at first, so I explained how he was climbing out of the pool, slipped on the steps and came down on his chin. After that, we took our turns explaining the same scenario he restating my original description almost verbatim. It wasn't until we got home that night and Big E said he had actually been practicing his reverse cannonball technique that he came clean.

Waiting for stitches with Magic Numbing Gel making the chin feel happy again.

All better. The worst thing is No Swimming for a WEEK! Don't they know we've spent something like 3500 hours at the pool this summer? And this, the last week the pool is open?

Whenever Little A is cautioned about potential danger involving various activities like scaling the outside of swingsets, jumping from the top bunk, or sliding face first into the deep end of the pool, I get the standard 'Awww, that won't hurt ME' answer. He was playing on the patient bed IN the ER room, bouncing and trying to stand up and jump (it's KINDA like a hotel bed, right? uh, except for the wheels and expensive equipment all around it). I said something to the effect that it probably wasn't a good idea and he gave me that same answer. While he was sitting there with a gash on his chin. Waiting for stitches. In a trauma room. I shudder to think what kind of Invincibility Charm he'll believe he lives under when he's a teenager.

As we were registering, a man and woman frantically blew into the ER, obviously in a panic. They said they'd received a phone call that their 14 year old son was here and could they please see him? Hospital staff quickly ushered them through The Big Doors and they were gone. Leaving me to ponder What Happened? Leaving me to ponder that feeling of dread that I feel when I see or hear a kid doing something dangerous. The feeling I imagine I'll wake up with in the middle of the night in too few years.

Thinking of this and school starting, and Big E morphing into some kind of tween or something and then reading these two very well-written and timely blog posts (here and here...they even have matching backgrounds) has me a bit melancholy, pensive, and torn between counting the minutes before the school bell rings Monday and locking my doors to keep everyone in. Take the time to read them. I'll give good odds that there will be a tear in your eye or a lump in your throat when you're done. And don't we Moms just love that sometimes?