Stitches

While Suzi was here we decided to take the kids to the park when Nathan got home from work. The kids were playing on some newly installed playground equipment. All of them except Henry came back over to where we were sitting to play some more Lacrosse. When we looked back up to keep an eye on Henry, we were horrified to see him running towards us, shrieking, with his head covered in blood. It was the single most heart-stopping moment so far for me as a mother. We hadn't seen what had happened, so we didn't know what we would find when we caught up to him. My other kids were screaming and freaking out so loud that we had the attention of the entire park. When we reached him, I was actually relieved to see that it was a gash over his eye. That was something that could be fixed. As we were calming Henry down and cleaning him up, a woman came over to tell us what had happened. She saw Henry fall off the thing he was playing on and as he sat up, it swung and hit him in the eye. Nathan and I took him to urgent care, while Suzi stayed at the park with the rest of the kids. My kids were NOT happy that they weren't coming to urgent care too - they were very concerned for Henry. Henry was so funny at the doctor's office. When we were sitting in the waiting room, he put his hand up to his eye and, quite pathetically, said, "Mom, you need to call my friends. You need to tell them what happened to me."

When we took him into the bathroom to wash him up a little bit, he saw that there was blood under his fingernails. He said, "I look cool with blood on me. I hope it doesn't wash off." What a boy. He became a little nervous when he was laying on the bed waiting for the numbing gel to start working. He kept asking me to tell him again what exactly the doctor was going to do - I was giving him very vague answers.

As the doctor was injecting his cut with the needle, he did finally start to whimper and quietly cried, "That hurts!" What a brave little guy! While he was getting the actual stitches, he kept asking how many minutes until the doctor was going to be done. I told him to count to 60 and that would be one minute. He immediately went to work counting to 60 over and over again until the doctor was done - it kept him distracted (and it was good practice for Kindergarten!) The doctor finally finished. Seven stitches. Henry sat up and looked around, relieved that it was over. He glanced over and saw the needle sitting in the tray. He breathed and sigh of relief and said, "Whew, I thought the doctor was going to use that thing!" When we took our brave little guy home, Suzi and the kids had some frozen yogurt waiting for him.

Half an hour later, we had to say our goodbyes so that Suzi and Kyler could catch a plane back to Phoenix. Henry had taken a real liking to Kyler (Kywer) and I don't think he was happy to see him go. It's never fun saying goodbye to visitors.

Thanks for seeing us!

At bedtime, when I kissed Henry goodnight, I whispered in his ear, "I'm happy that you're okay." Henry said softly, "Mommy, can we say a prayer?" I said sure, and then he said, "Then put your hands on my head." That got me. It was touching to see that he understood what a priesthood blessing was and that he thought he needed one. I explained to him why I couldn't do it and then called Nathan back into the room. Henry was so serious as he sat up in his bed, folded his little arms, closed his eyes and waited for Nathan to start. It almost made me laugh. What a cutie.