So do little boys who push stools around the garage, enjoying the ear-splitting, obnoxious sound they make. Alex found that out the hard way. Tuesday night as I was making dinner, the kids were playing in the garage. I stepped inside to stir something for 30 seconds, and heard the unmistakable sound of an injury. Running out, I saw Alex sobbing with blood pouring from his mouth. I think there’s nothing that prepares you for that as a parent – the fear that they’ve really hurt themselves or knocked teeth out. I grabbed him up and plunked him down on the kitchen counter and held pressure by his mouth with a towel to try and stop the flow. When I took a peek to see the damage, it was clear that he had bitten himself by the two perfect little toothmarks below his bottom lip. The blood coming from inside his mouth told me he’d gone all the way through. A cool piercing when you are 18, but not so much when you’re three.

Alex was really brave, though. He had stopped crying within five minutes or so and in fact was kind of pissed when Avery and Adam were eating tacos and he wasn’t as we waited for the doctor to call back and advise us about his need for stitches. In the end, he ate a taco, I put Adam to bed, and then he and I made a 4 hour trip to the emergency room. Well, the drive was only 35 minutes but the wait…Ugh. We got there at 7:30, and he had been up since 7 am with no nap. He was such a trooper, sitting in my lap and not complaining that I wouldn’t let him touch anything but my phone as we waited and waited and waited some more to be triaged. I didn’t want us bringing home swine flu or anything else we didn’t arrive with. He happily played driving games and others as we sat. We finally got back to the nurse around 9:15, and it was decided that he needed LET gel, which is lidocaine and two other things to numb the skin. After it was on, the nurse informed me it would take about 45 minutes to work, so it was back to the waiting room for us. Yay. Just before 11, we were finally called back into the patient care area. I sat him on the bed. As a lady came in and began to handle registration and insurance information, I noticed Alex’s eyes closing and his head wobbling. He really looked like he was about to fall over from exhaustion. I laid him down and within 30 seconds, he was asleep. Over the course of the next 30 minutes, the doctor came in to take a look at the wound and I asked if he’d be able to stitch him while he slept. He said he hoped so and would try. Sure enough, Alex flinched as the bandage holding the gel on was removed, but then slept right through the big moment. Two stitches that should dissolve in a week or so were sewn in, and we were done. The poor guy stayed completely knocked out through that, me carrying him to the van, strapping him in, driving home, carrying him into his room, and laying him in bed. Thank goodness I had thought to put him in his pajamas before we left for the hospital. It was midnight by the time we got home.

In the end, I’m glad we got our first stitches out of the way. I’m sure they won’t be the only ones, especially for the boys, but hopefully this sets a precedent for smooth sailing through any future ones!