The Calm One

Exactly a week before Michael's birthday, Dave was making dinner (hot dogs on the grill) while I was playing with Michael. Dave was going in and out of the sliding glass door - it's an old door, and doesn't slide well on the track. It takes a bit of effort to slide, and it makes quite the racket - no sneaking in or out of that door!

Michael really likes the piano, and loves pulling himself up using the bench so he can play the keys by himself (without me holding him). He was standing at the piano, right next to the bench, when Dave opened the sliding glass door. Michael jumped, then tried to hurry and sit down - not realizing that if he did so he'd do a face-plant into the corner of the piano bench. He hit the bench with his mouth, and immediately had a shocked look on his face - I, meanwhile, was having flashbacks to a heavy table falling on my younger brother. As soon as Michael got over the shock enough to catch his breath, he started wailing - but no blood. Whew!

I picked him up and he buried his face against my shoulder while he cried. When he lifted his head a little, I tried to see if he had a fat lip already, but there was too much blood to see. Again, flashbacks - this time of the bloody trip to the emergency room, trying to hold a towel to my younger brother's gushing mouth. So, of course, I tell Dave, "Let's go. We need to leave right now."

Dave decided we needed to clean the blood off first and see how bad it really was. He tried to gently mop up Michael's face and we got a teether out of the freezer. Lips intact, gums apparently intact, teeth still in place - whew! We couldn't tell exactly where the blood was coming from because Michael wouldn't let go of the teether - but at least the bleeding slowed quickly. By this time the hot dogs were done, and we decided to stay and eat. We didn't think Michael would want to eat much, so we gave him some cold applesauce. When that wasn't enough, we gave him some puffs - he popped 'em in his mouth and started chewing them like nothing happened. He's one tough kid!

Dave's commentary on the whole thing? "Well, we know who the calm one is." This time maybe - considering Dave wasn't picturing a far worse injury that happened years ago and involved stitches and pulling out broken teeth.

Michael cut the piece of skin that attaches his lip to his gum. The nurse said it would heal on it's own, so no stitches or anything - just a teether and some ibuprofen for a couple days. The next morning, you could hardly see the swelling. And now I have a t-shirt that could make a great Halloween costume!

Shortly after it happened.

The next morning.