Just Another Friday Night

Caleb is such a boy.

The kid has already had a baseball bat to the nose, a bee sting that nearly closed his eyes and many other smaller injuries that make me wish that I had stock in band-aids.

So, why not add on another freak accident?

I was leading Abby's American Heritage Girls meeting in the school library.  Nick was on his way to pick up the boys and rescue them from all of the giggling and while he was waiting, Caleb played in the playhouse.  It is a wooden playhouse with two built in benches.  While my back was to him, I suddenly heard a thud and a loud scream.

As I dove into the little playhouse to comfort my injured Caleb (which was no easy task given that I have a sore knee that hurts to bend-but that is for another story), I had to wonder what on earth he did to himself to create such drama.  As I held him and comforted him, I finally dared to look at his face.  Blood.  Right by his eye.

Inside, I was crying, "Please tell me he did not cut his eye!"  Outside, I calmly said, "Okay, let's go get this washed up."

I took my screaming child to the bathroom to stop the bleeding with a paper towel.  However, since it was a Friday afternoon, the paper towel dispenser was completely empty.  Thankfully, the school nurse had not left, yet, so we quickly cleaned up in her office and applied ice to rapidly swollen eye.

At closer look, I found the source of the bleeding.  A huge, deep cut right next to his eye.  As his eye turned black and blue, and the screaming continued, I realized that he would probably need stitches.

At this point, Nick walked into the school.  When he entered the building, he heard the screaming and saw people in the entry way looking concerned and speaking in whispers.  His first thought was, "I'm so glad that's not my kid crying like that."  Within seconds, he discovered that he was quite wrong.

We gathered the kids and headed to the ER, which is thankfully about three minutes from school.  I must mention here how proud I was of Abby.  When I ran into the library and told her that we had to leave, she did not cry and pout about leaving her meeting.  She said, "Oh no!" and quickly got her stuff together.  Her concern for her brother outweighed her desire to have fun with her friends.  Quite awesome and rare.

Waiting in the ER

The ER staff was amazing for Caleb.  While I was still signing him in, he already accumulated a stuffed dog and two coloring books.  After a quick examination, they decided to use some kind of glue (I think it is called dermabond) instead of stitches.  Thank the Lord that stuff exists.

I went home with Noah once I realized that there would be no more pain involved.  Apparently, everything went well until one little mishap.  A drop of the glue got onto Caleb's eyelashes, causing him to not be able to open his eye.  After some panicking and crying from a hungry and tired Caleb, they finally got most of it off.

Enjoying some much needed pizza after the drama

Now, my poor boy is recovering.  He has a swelled eye that only opens part of the way, a few eyelashes that are still coming unstuck from the glue, and a bruise on his nose.  Oh, did I not mention?  He also bumped his nose.

When asked how all of this happened, Caleb's only response is, "I don't know.  It just happened."

I am so thankful that it was not as bad as it could have been.  However, I keep having this thought...Noah is a boy.  I have two boys.  What on earth am I in for?