Blood, Sweat, and Tears

After my last post, I was thinking of all the times my kids have been late to school and the circumstances surrounding that and I remember one incident that really stood out.

A little background: my kindergartner is sort of a mix between a cuddly bear and the Tasmanian devil. My wild child is on his second backpack for this year. And it’s literally safety pinned together. He went through two winter coats and countless pants.  The kid literally runs circles around everyone all day long. I bought him a pair of Sketcher sneakers in October and when we were shooting baskets in the gym in December he kept slipping. I looked and his treads were completely gone.  At first I thought, "Boy they sure don’t make ‘em like they used to" (I have a pair of Sketchers from college which was… well, let’s just say… ages ago!).  But I realized he literally wore them out… in two months.

Here he is VICTORIOUS!

My husband and I joke about how this boy of ours came out ready for the marines.  He's the kid who when Grandpa says, "watch out for spider webs on the dock!" goes running chest out, arms open wide right into them, not because he has something to prove, but because he really just doesn't care.

check out the long walkway and imagine him running and  yelling and letting the webs go all over him...

This tough side is balanced well though with a sweetness and deep concern for others. He will be the first to run over to the baby and comfort him or to give a hug out of the blue. He is as sweet as can be, just a little fireball.

So when his brother came upstairs one day saying that my little sweet tornado had pulled the coat hooks out of the wall, I wasn’t as shocked as you would think.  He pulled so hard, they literally came out of the wall. Since the hooks were anchored into the wall, it left two huge holes.  They say I'll laugh at these things someday...

The next day he went to get his coat and it was up high. Being extremely resourceful, he tried to get it himself but couldn’t quite reach, so he got a cap gun, a nice solid metal one, and was throwing it up high in the air to try and get it to unhook his coat. Not such a great idea. Apparently the sharpest part of the gun landed on his head.

The next thing I know I’m looking at the clock thinking that although my husband was gone, I was actually going to get them to school on time… we still had plenty of time! It was a miracle… there’s a first time for everything!  WOW! I’m supermom!   That was until he came upstairs holding his head, covered in blood.

Now, there was a time when I was new to this mothering boys business that I became completely unglued at the sight of my child bleeding. But being the veteran that I am, and having experienced countless boys bloodied in battle… okay.... I still freak out at the sight of one of them bleeding. Every. Single. Time.  I’m not really sure if my reaction is because it’s so painful to see your child hurting, because my level of medical care doesn't extend beyond putting on a band-aid, or because I don’t want blood on my carpet… but I have yet to react calmly and rationally. 

Anyway, I quickly decided that if I was going to the ER, I’d rather have three children with me instead of four so I took my oldest to school while having my bleeding boy cover his head with an ice packet and a towel. And I called my sister who is an ER doctor.

And my sister saved the day again… she calmly told me how much head wounds bleed and how it probably wasn’t that bad and walked me through what to do to help him. She saved me an ER visit that day and a huge copay and it was only one of the many times I’ve been grateful for her!

Here she is with my little niece 

By the time I got to the pediatrician’s office my bleeding boy was doing fine and so was I. 

And I learned that being late to school isn’t the worst thing that could happen after all.  And that motherhood, like everything worth doing, takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears!