Initiation

In my mind, there is no better way to christen a new blog, especially a new blog about my family's tales and adventures, than with the tale I have to share with you tonight.

As you may, or may not, know, I have been cursed blessed with an abominable, insane, crazy, stubborn, head-strong absolutely adorably intelligent and active toddler. This child is my life, my reason for living, and will probably be responsible for putting me into an early grave. He's almost impossible to keep up with. I have never felt my age so much as I have since he hit the toddler stage. At the same time, he is sweet and loving and cuddly - and he knows it. He manipulates me with his cuteness so I don't wring his neck.

Anyway, on to the story of how I spent my Saturday night.

It started out in a rather unassuming manner. I was sitting on the love seat, crocheting a project I need to finish this weekend. Sebastian was watching Toy Story and dancing around the living room with his adorable plushie penguin Melissa's folks gave him for Christmas. Chad had just finished getting ready for his show and was standing next to the couch. Sebastian, who loves his daddy and loves any opportunity to show off for him that he can, got a wild hair and started twirling around like a whirling dervish.

Next thing we knew, Sebastian had tripped and gone head first into the corner of the coffee table. Chad grabbed him and laid him on the couch, while I dove off my seat and over to the baby. He had smacked his head right above his left eye and got a pretty good cut. Plus, being a head wound, it was bleeding like mad. I grabbed some tissue and put pressure on it to get the bleeding to stop, then took a look. It was definitely deep and long enough that it was going to need stitches.

We bundled the boy up, grabbed Chad's gear and it was off to the ER. Because Chad's band was playing in a competition, I refused to let him cancel and promised I would keep him up to date on what was going on and dropped him at the club on my way to the ER. I got to Primary's and expected to settle in for a Rip Van Winkle style wait. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. We got there and were immediately able to check in. Within about 10 min, they had us back in triage to assess the situation. Right from there, we were put in a nice private room and the dr turned on Harry Potter for Sebastian while the nurse brought him some toys to play with. About 15 min after that, the nurse came back to check his vitals and to put a topical lidocain solution on his cut to numb it so they wouldn't have to give him a shot. I wish I'd had the camera with me at that point. He looked like a little pirate. The nurse had put a lidocaine soaked cotton ball on the cut and wrapped the equivalent of vet wrap around it and his head to hold it in place. He fought with it at first, but was soon distracted by the movie and trucks.

It took about an hour for them to come back in to check on us, but we were doing just fine. When the doctor came back in, she declared it was time for her to wrangle the troops and get Sebastian stitched up. Here is where I felt totally and completely helpless. They put his arms into a pillowcase, then laid him down on top of that. He was then wrapped up in a sheet like a burrito so he couldn't move. He was screaming to bring the house down and all I could do was rub his tummy and sing to him, hoping that some measure of that was comforting to him. I hated that I couldn't take away the fear and frustration he was feeling, also knowing that he was tired and confused. Poor Chad called while we were in the middle of the stitching process and I couldn't come to the phone.

The actual process went pretty quickly. it took about 5 minutes for the doctor to place 4 stitches. Sebastian was unwrapped and I cuddled and kissed him while he shuddered and cried. It was amazing how quickly the tears dried up, though, when the doctor brought him a popsicle - totally and completely - if you didn't know he had been crying hysterically, you would never have known he had shed a tear.

Our total time at the hospital was about an hour and 45 minutes - practically unheard of. I was so happy with the whole experience. I hope we never have to deal with it again, but I'm glad to know that it won't be too horrible an experience, should we have to. On the way home, I swung by so that Chad could see the boy and the boy could see his daddy. I just love watching the two of them interact. Sebastian got sooo excited when he saw Chad. I thought he was going to pop his new stitches.

When we got home, it was like nothing had happened. Sebastian was running around, jumping on the couch, being his usual crazy self. I was envisioning another run to the hospital because of him bursting his stitches, or some such. After a little while though, he settled down and cuddled into me while we watched Toy Story. Poor little monkey head. I certainly do love him to distraction.

Anyway, so this isn't all boring text, I'll include a few pictures I took of his new decoration. The blue hat he's wearing is a hat I made him from bamboo yarn. He'd probably sleep in it if I let him.