MJ (9mo) is sporting a new bandage today. Yesterday I asked Hannah to keep an eye on the kids while I went outside to fiddle with the carseat; I was almost done when I heard the screen door slam and Hannah was calling me to come take my baby. "Is she sad?" I asked, emerging from the van, and then I saw the blood all over Hannah's shirt.
MJ was already cleaned up, her right eye caught as if in mid-blink with a band-aid over the lid and brow. Hannah explained that Milo (3) had come into the room brandishing a long-handled toy with a small metal bucket rattling upturned over the end of the handle. He'd announced "I'm going to throw this at the baby!" and then ("like a trebuchet, no, like an atlatl," explained Hannah) had flung the bucket across the room.
The edge hit MJ in the face before Hannah could do anything. She had picked her up and seen the baby's eye was a mass of blood (an image that still makes me cringe in horror), but didn't panic and dabbed away the blood to reveal that the cut was just above MJ's eye, between the lid and the brow. MJ didn't want to have anything to do with a cold compress and was much happier with a band-aid. As soon as the bleeding had stopped Hannah had brought her out to me.
I took her in to the doctor just in case (there being an eye nearby and all) and he pronounced the 2-cm laceration "superficial." I declined glue for the cut; the nurse helped me put a fresh bandage on her; we went home, where dinner was waiting.
I didn't go out of my way to punish Milo. Coming up against a three-year-old, even one with wrathful intent, is kind of like walking into a door or tree branch: it's more a force of nature than anything else. Besides, all my energy was directed towards comforting MJ and then getting her to the doctor (I dropped the boys off at Mark's office on the way). When I got home I took Milo on my lap and we talked about how I often tell him that throwing hard toys is dangerous, and today he had seen why.
I asked him just now: If someone asks what happened to MJ's face, what will you say?
A bucket hit her in the face.
Did the bucket jump up and hit her in the face all by itself?
Yeeeeeeesssss....
Come on. (I smile slyly.) Do buckets jump up and hit people?
He grins. Noooooooo.
How did the bucket hit her?
Very hard so that she was bleeding.
No, I mean, who made the bucket fly through the air to hit her?
I did.
Why did you throw the bucket?
Because I wanted to.
Is it a good idea to throw a bucket?
No.
Why not?
Because it might be hurt.
Because somebody might be hurt. Is that what you mean?
Right.
Are you going to do it again?
Nope.
Well. We'll see if that sank in at all.
I got home and told Mark what had happened. "It was like a trebuchet!" I said.
"No," he corrected me, "like an atlatl."
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