I knew we were in trouble the second I heard you cry, and I looked up to see that blood was all over both of your hands. Some weird object that you found in the cupboard had been keeping you occupied, and I was in such a hurry to get dinner made that I didn't think twice about what it was. It was the freaking potato slicer. I swept you up and took you into the bathroom to rinse your hands and find out where the cuts were. I had a feeling it wasn't just one. I mean come on, a potato slicer!!! In my head, I figured there was no way that you hadn't cut each and every one of your fingers.
"Luckily", it was really just your thumb that got it the worst. A few nicks on 3 other fingers were easy to ignore when we had a thumb that just wouldn't stop bleeding. As I held you on my lap and pressed a washcloth to your thumb, I wondered how long I would let you bleed until I panicked and called someone. It's amazing how calm I have been in situations where you've gotten hurt - I guess when you can't look away and let someone else deal with it, it's a little easier to keep a level head.
A few weeks ago, I had bought a package of band-aids "just in case". The Sater girls were with me and wanted me to buy the "girl" band-aids, but I instead chose the "boy" band-aids - you know, basketballs and robots. I got one of the robot band-aids out and tried to wrap it around your poor thumb but I think this made you even more aware of your injury and made you even more sad.
Dinner was hard - you would forget about your injury, use your thumb, and then cry in pain. It's so hard to not be able to reason with you and explain what's happening. A soapy bath was out of the question!
All throughout the night I kept having flashbacks to seeing you sitting on the floor with blood on your hands. I felt so bad. I know this is just the beginning of bumps and bruises and cuts, and they only help you learn what not to touch and what can hurt you, but STILL! I know you'll never remember this. Which is why I'm writing this down now. My sweet little boy - stick with me as I try to find the balance of not being a helicopter mom but still protecting you from injury. It's gonna take me a while to figure this out.
