DeJa Vu?

Do these pictures seem familiar to anyone else? Because this whole experience felt very familiar to one I had just last year with a different child. In case you can't remember check it out here. (I'm so proud of myself for finally learning how to do that!!) Anyway, splitting open your forhead while we're out in public places seems to be the cool thing to do around here. I guess Justin wasn't about to let Dawson outdo him in the manly scar on the head department.

Since Justin has been off track this month, we've been hanging around the house more than the boys like to, so Thursday morning, we decided to go to the Corona library for story time. It was a huge success. Justin went to his story time by himself and had fun, and Dawson and Chase came with me to the toddler story, and actually made it through the whole thing, (huge accomplishment!) After story time, we picked out a few books to check out and while I was checking them out Justin and Dawson threw pennies in the water fountain they have there (they do this everythime we go and always look forward to this) Well just as I finish checking out and start heading towards the door, Justin comes running towards me crying. I look down and his whole face is completely covered in blood. Apparently he had tripped and hit his head on the very angular ledge of the fountain. Those of you who know me, know that I am extremely squeamish where blood is concerned, but I held it together and put my hand over the gash to stop the bleeding, (as far as sanitation is concerned, it probably wasn't the smartest move, but after a brief glance around I realized that I had nothing with me that I could use, so my hand it was. Where oh where were my trusty baby wipes when I needed them?) By then we'd attracted a fair amount of attention, possibly due to the fact the my son was standing directly in the entrance of the library pouring blood all over the floor. Finally some library workers come to the rescue with paper towels and plenty of questions for me to answer because apparently they have to file reports about this and they think I have nothing better to do than answer questions while I try to calm down my bleeding 5 years old, keep Dawson from running out of the library, and bounce Chase in my free arm while he is fussing his little head off. During this interogation, they inform me that I am not allowed to leave with Justin. He will have to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. City policy. At this time I call Nazar and tell him to get over there because there is no way I am sending my 5 year old alone in an ambulance since I'm pretty sure they won't let Dawson and Chase come along for the ride. Finally the ambulance showed up, along with a fire truck full of firefighters. After they came, everything got a lot better. They were all so nice, and so helpful. One of the firefighters immediately made friends with Dawson and took him out to see the fire truck. Another arranged for Chase to be held by one of the oh so useful library workers. The paramedics took great care of Justin and after about 15 minutes they told me that he was going to be fine and that I could take him to the hospital on my own if I would prefer that. Nazar got there just as they were finishing up, and so he was able to take Justin to the hospital and I took the little boys home for naps. I was so thankful that Nazar was there to take him because although I held it together while we were there, as soon as Justin left with Nazar, I lost it. Even though I just did this same thing with Dawson last year, it still felt so traumatizing and overwhelming to see my little boy go through all of that.

Luckily kids are resilient.

When Justin came home from the hospital, he walked inside and said, "hey Mom, look at my stitches!" in such a proud little voice. Since then, the only times he talks about his injury is when he is trying to get something. For example, "Mom, can I have a treat since I have stitches?"

I'm so thankful that he's okay, and that there were such wonderful people to help me through this, and that Nazar was close enough to come to the rescue, and that Justin was wearing a red shirt that day so that it didn't look quite as gruesome, and that hydrogen peroxide takes blood right out of clothes because wouldn't you know it that I was wearing white that day! Hopefully it will be years before Chase decides he needs a manly scar like his brothers! By the way, the blue lips and teeth in the picture above were not caused by the accident. Those came from the blue ring pop that I gave him after he conned me into it with the above mentioned manipulation tactics!