The Shiner

My boys have not yet broken any bones, or required any stitches. Before yesterday, in my 8+ years as a parent, I'd only been to the emergency room once, for pneumonia when Fezzik was about 2.

I'm not a freaker-outer, so there may have been instances in past that could have been borderline E.R. material. But my usual routine is to slap some hydrogen peroxide (or magic bubbles) and a bandage on their owies and call it good.

Yesterday, while I was in a meeting (at the job that pays me to stay there and do stuff), I got a call on my cell phone from Tiny Viking's teacher. I knew it would be bad when I saw the caller ID, because they NEVER chase me down on my cell phone. I excused myself from the meeting and picked up the call, and found out that Tiny Viking had hit his face on a window sill and required my attention. Immediately.

These are the moments in which I'm glad we pay and arm and a leg to have him onsite at my work. I was able to run to his class and get there while he was still crying. He had a cold wash cloth on his face, and whimpered when I reached out for him. I pulled the wash cloth back to see the damage, and I knew that it wasn't great. Head wounds bleed, y'all. A lot.

After I saw that the cut was pretty deep, I decided to err on the side of caution this time, and take him to the hospital. I felt a little silly, because there were no protruding bones or hanging body parts, but still.

Do you know that they super glue now, instead of stitching? It's so cool! They washed it out, and glued his face back together, and all he has is a little owie and a shiner now. Very dangerous, very mysterious. See?