Sad times around here this weekend. Nate and I were engaged in Round 512 of "I'm Going To Clip Your Nails/You Are Most Certainly NOT Going To Clip My Nails If I Can Help It," and in a last-second squirm, I ended up clipping off a chunk of his finger instead of the nail. I can't even type that without wanting to cry some more. It was just about as awful as you can imagine, and also some more awful. First, do you know how much fingertips bleed? A LOT. As we sped off to the ER, with Nate still in his jammies and Mommy barely remembering to change out of hers, we left behind a bathroom that may as well have been the set for the inevitable CSI: San Francisco. It turned out that the ER triage nurse was a lot less impressed with the spurtage of blood than I was, as I cut the triage line without hesitating, using the "My child is bleeding!" line. "It's just a finger, right?" the nurse asked quizzically. "Have a seat. He's fine." Apparently, she did not realize that "just a finger" is rather important when one is carrying around a future surgeon in snowman Baby Gap pajamas.
Nate was a very, very brave soldier. He cried a bit at first, not that you could hear him over my frantic wailing and carrying on (very helpful at such times, I'm told), but by the time we got in the car, he was just sniffling a little while enthusiastically singing along to Dan Zanes. When we finally got to see the triage nurse, he decided that he didn't want to bother removing the gauze to show her his wound, so he assured her, "Nine of my fingers feel just fine!" In the end, he enjoyed sitting in the clinic reading There's No Such Thing As A Chanukah Bush, Sandy Goldstein with me (interesting side note: this book suggests that as of the time of its writing, 1983, it was acceptable to have a children's book that (a) made repeated use of the word "hate," including in reference to other children (b) involved a character who smokes (an old man, but still), and (c) ended with the conclusion that Sandy Goldstein only has a Chanukah bush because she is a loser who doesn't have any friends who will share their holiday with her (at least, I think that's what happened from quickly skimming the ending, because we didn't actually get to finish it before the doctor came). I'm pretty sure all of those things are strictly verboten today) waiting for the doctor. He also enjoyed impressing the doctor by reading her Vietnamese name correctly off of her name tag, although to be fair, her astonishment was slightly misplaced; her name was entirely phonetic, and the only reason adults have a hard time with it is because they are projecting or trying to be fancy. He also enjoyed scoring a couple of excellent matchbox cars from the hospital's stash for sad little patients. And his finger is fine; he didn't need any stitches, and it should be perfectly fine by the end of the week, although he will likely have a scar that he can feel free to hold over my head for the rest of his life, if he's interested. I won't mind. In any event, he is ok and a true champ and good sport. 
In other Nate news, Monday was a school holiday, so Nate was home when the previous owner of our house stopped by to pick up his mail that is still trickling in. I opened the door to Ed, a middle aged white man, only to hear Nate shout, with wonder in his voice, "It's Martin Luther King!!!!" Apparently he thinks it's like Santa Claus: he comes to visit on his holiday. Also, I apparently neglected to mention, in my extremely sanitized version of the story, that Dr. MLK, Jr. no longer, how you say, walks among us. I'm pretty sure Nate thinks that Dr. MLK's whole deal was that he told people they can be friends even if they are different. He's probably not sure why that rates a day off from school.
Speaking of MLK, the form I filled out for Nate's public school app required me to select a "primary" race for him. I'm not quite sure whether Nate self-identifies as Asian or White, or perhaps other. I was not, however, allowed to select "bi-racial," so I guess I just decided for him. Does 1/4 Asian count as primary if it sets one apart as Other? Does the answer change if the person looks Asian? Why is this necessary information? Especially in this town, where being monoracial is actually less common.
...And speaking of school apps, we have decided, along with Nate's preschool teacher, that we definitely want to start kindergarten this fall. We had been waffling, which had led me to feel rather blase about the whole application process, and now, predictably, I am panicking that we didn't apply to enough schools. But we applied to 3 and may be applying to a 4th (plus our local public), and I am VERY excited about 2 of them, so we just need to hope for the best. Wish us luck! Hopefully, one can pass the parent interviews even if one has, on occasion, broken the baby.
Not to worry. If you'll remember, my husband broke my son's leg when said son was 15 months old. And I cut off part of the same son's finger (attempting to cut his fingernails) before he was two weeks old. think of it as a rite of passage. Or something he can talk about in therapy.
Posted by: Marsha | January 22, 2008 at 02:54 PM