A birthday and a boo boo

Yesterday was Seb's birthday and the man actually, okay stop the presses everyone, he decided to take a day off of work to be with his family. I could hardly believe it myself. After trying on about twenty different possible birthday events for size, we decided on a simple day at the local swimming pool complete with ice cream, cool drinks and a huge base camp under a tree. Our town's swimming pool sits on the lake and is actually a huge park with about five swimming pools and a baby swimming area with it's own two giant paddling pools and a baby sized slide that's wide enough for three kids to go down at once side by side. Little S's loves it there and I take him about once a week to get all of his energy out and work on his little baby bronzage. Seb doesn't get to go so often so I thought it would be fun for him to see Little S in action, giggling, laughing and interacting with all the adorable bout-chous his age.

We stayed the better part of the afternoon and were just stretching our arms and thinking about leaving when S decided to go down the slide a few more times. The slide was pretty crowded so with Seb at the top and me at the bottom as "catcher," S did about three little runs and was on his fourth run when suddenly we heard a sickening "thud" He'd apparently missed a step or tripped in the crowd of kids, it was hard to tell, and he was wailing like a siren. He usually doesn't cry when he's hurt, in fact it takes a lot to get him crying like that, so we gave him a cuddle and carried him off, when we noticed the blood starting to pour from his chin. He'd gashed open a place under his chin a good three inches long and it was quite deep. We hurried to the lifeguard station and the she quickly agreed it was very bad, and gave us some compresses. She told us we'd need to go to the hospital right away and probably get stitches for him. We were devastated. To know that you have to take your child to the ER when they are so tiny is about the worst thing that can happen to you as a parent.

We spent a good three hours waiting in the ER, watching the now familiar flood of elderly folk dazed and tired from the effects of the Summer heatwave pouring in. Little S ended up needing three stitches, and had to be given a local anaesthesia and gas for the pain. They had to tie him down with a bed sheet and he was held by two nurses. I've never heard him scream like that. It was just horrible. They asked me to wait in the hallway and I reluctantly did, nail biting and crying as I heard him screaming in rage, pain and frustration. Seb stayed with him and talked with him, but afterwards he said "I'm sure he hates me." I felt like maybe it was me he hated for leaving him, and as perhaps proof of it he bit my finger so hard on the way home that it turned red and swelled up like a sausage.

When we got home it was late but we stayed up and played with him, talked with him and hugged him about a hundred times. Slowly he came around, the tears dried up and when we asked for kisses he came to me and kissed me two or three times and did the same for Seb a little afterwards. We both felt relieved and it alleviated some of the guilt. Good old guilt, the most prevalent emotion you'll have as a parent. I don't think there's a day that goes by where I don't feel guilty as a parent for one thing or another!

Since Seb's birthday dinner got cancelled I stuck some candles in his cake before bed anyway so he could at least make some wishes for the coming year. He didn't think long before he blew them out and he seemed to know exactly what he wanted to have. I think he probably wished for a calmer year and a lot more family time since we're all missing each other terribly. I know he probably wished for a really savvy, high paying job here in Haute Savoie so he can make it back home and yet still not lose income or experience. I only hope these and many other wishes come true.