Yesterday, when we were walking back from seeing the only horse in the area (name: Happy), Max stepped on a piece of wood, lost his balance, and fell forward onto the street. I saw the moment of impact and saw him turn his head and arch his back at the last minute (good boy!) but when I picked him up, his mouth was filled with blood. Nam handed me a cloth diaper (which we only use as baby rags now) and I was able to clean up some blood and determine that he’d cut open his bottom lip with his tooth. He was crying a bit, but kind of stopped in shock as he tasted that sour metallic taste for the first time. The pungent smell of it made my heart race, too. We walked home quickly and cleaned him up in the shower. It’s swelled up a bit today, but it should be OK. He doesn’t seem to feel it.
I just can’t get his expression out of my mind, that moment when he looked at me not knowing what was happening, in pain but not really sure what was wrong. I’m pretty sure, in that moment, I could have, say, lifted a bus, or fought off a bear to help him. And Nam, who I saw brought to tears when he first started moving around and getting little boo boos, was totally solid.
So, any bears feel like screwing around with us?
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
ouch! The first big boo boo is always hard, but what a good job all of you did. It’s hard to relax once babies begin to toddle and run on their own.
As a preventive first aid measure, perhaps now is a good time to study up on what to do in the case of a bigger boo boo, such as if a tooth got knocked loose or those sorts of emergencies.
Life happens and it’s great to see how resilient and strong children can be!
On a happier note, did you get a cute photo of him with Happy?
No, but I’ll get one soon…. My comp is down for a while.