Rub A Little Dirt On It

My kids tend to be slight drama queens. Especially when it comes to being "hurt". I put "hurt" in quotes because I dont consider it truly hurt if they stop crying when I offer them a snack or turn on Elmo. If Ruthie as much as brushes by Maddie, Maddie acts as if Ruthie has just punched her in the face. Because of this, I have picked up a few tricks.

#1. When witnessing something that looks like it has the potential to be an injury, but no blood, automatically turn away as if you didnt see it. This works 85% of the time in preventing the crying from being "hurt"

#2. When witnessing something that looks like it has the potential to be an injury, but no blood, act like they have just won the Super Bowl by jumping up and down and clapping. They will think it was a fun game that they fell flat on their faces 85% of the time.

#3. When witnessing something that looks like it has the potential to be an injury, but no blood, get them to rub a little dirt on it. Not literally, but get them to buck up. I usually say something like, "She barely touched you, you are fine", etc. This one is not always as effective as the previous 2, but sometimes I am just so frustrated with them for being so much drama they get spoken to like I would an adult that was whining about something.

With all of this in mind, I will continue on to our afternoon yesterday. Both of the girls were a little fussy from not having a great nap. There was drama in every little touch, trying to share, etc. I had them outside on the deck playing in the kiddie pool and the backyard. Maddie tripped over one of the buckets and immediately began the crying drama. I went straight to #3 because I was at the end of my rope with them. This was one of the cases where it didnt work effectively and the crying got worse.

Then I saw it. Blood. Blood all down the front of her shirt. All tricks go out the window once blood is involved. Turns out that little Miss had landed face first on one of these baskets (Exhibit A)

and the plastic edge of the basket cut her all the way across her chin from cheek to cheek. Here are a couple things I learned from this injury.


#1. Wounds on the face are impossible to get to stop bleeding


#2. 20 month olds wont keep bandages on


#3. There is no good way to bandage a wound under your chin that goes cheek to cheek


So this is what we ended up with.



The child went to church looking like she had plastic surgery earlier that day and was taped up for recovery. We had to tape on the band aid so she couldnt pull it off. We went out later and got some liquid band aid and put that on, so she looked like this today.

That liquid bandage stuff is amazing!

So, maybe not my most shining moment as a parent, but I take comfort in knowing I am not the only one out there that it has happened to!