Remember that post I wrote about blood and needles and how I don't do them?
I was sitting on the sofa with a friend chatting about horses and Easter and various things (yes, I know horses aren't related to Easter, but she's a horse friend so of course we talked about horses and then we also talked about Easter and I don't know why I'm explaining this but you know I live to be parenthetical) and suddenly from down the hallway, a high, piercing scream erupted.
This is the parenting moment when you brain kicks into control mode. "OK, OK, if I just sit here and don't move there won't be anything wrong. They're probably just playing and someone took someone else's crayon." And so you sit there for a moment, frozen, waiting to be released from what is otherwise likely to be a trip to the emergency room. And if you've earned some karmic leeway, that's exactly what it is, the kids come traipsing down the hallway and haha, don't get mad Mommy, I just got my finger caught on C's teeth a little bit and I'm not hurt at all!
On the other hand, you could be, like some people we know who for whatever poor behavior have NOT earned any good karma of late and so therefore its not just a hangnail or a splinter. Your six year old son will come running down the hall screaming, MOMMY, MOMMY MOMMY I JUST STABBED MYSELF and you will look at the blood pouring out of his hand and in a very panicked sort of way wonder how long it will take his father to come here and handle the blood and then you will remember that his father is working and cannot possibly come and handle the blood.
This is the moment where, if you are very fortunate, ancient mommy instinct will kick in and you will forget that you "don't do blood" and you will scoop up your six year old, rush him to the sink, wash away the blood and determine from the size of the hole in his hand that you'd probably better go to the emergency room. And if you are very, very fortunate, the two hour wait at the ER will have a big payoff whereby the doctor determines that stitches aren't necessary even though the hole is very deep and so you will be spared the necessity of holding your child still while they POKE HOLES IN HIM WITH NEEDLES.
And so, even though the universe gave us a bloody hole in the hand, it did not give us needles and stitches. I was very, very fortunate.
If you are wondering how it happened, C managed to stab himself with the pointy end of a sharp stick while poking holes through the bottom of a Lego box. My son is very creative. I could have titled this post "What's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick?" Haha.
