I started writing this post earlier today and it was pretty straight-forward and happy-go-lucky about Christmas shopping for my kiddos, but as I sat down to finish writing it now I’m full of stress and anxiety because of what happened last night. Forgive me while I try to string both stream of consciousnesses together.

I was getting the kids out of the bathtub while talking to my mother-in-law. My husband was getting us takeout to enjoy after the kids went to bed. Handling both kids before bedtime is totally normal to me so I wasn’t worried about it.

I set Big T on the bed to jump and do naked flips onto the chair while I pulled Lil’ J out of the tub. Then she ran around naked while I put a diaper on her brother. Again, this is generally normal and no one peed on the floor or my pillow so we were good.

Then we all went into my son’s room to get their PJs on. He climbed on his glider chair and started rocking. Also normal. I turned around to put my daughter’s pajama dress on when my son stood up and pushed the glider with all his strength and knocked it backwards into the wall. He started crying and I realized his fingers were caught between the glider and the wall.

I picked him up and shushed him and rocked him but he was still screaming. I got off the phone and went to kiss his hand (kisses are great healing medicine in my house) when I noticed his pinky finger was bleeding. It was smashed at the finger tip, and it looked like his nail was about to come off. But the finger wasn’t broken as far as I could tell (he was moving it). But I got all queasy and started to panic. I didn’t know if I should rinse it or bandage it or both. I ran to the kitchen to get supplies when my husband walked in the door.

I has already been saying “oh no, oh no, this is bad!” And Lil’ J had seen the damage, so when her daddy walked in she (still naked, mind you) starts yelling “Daddy you need to help! [Big T] is hurt, it’s really bad! He’s bleeding!” Not exactly what you want to hear along with screaming from the other room.

I told him I needed help getting a bandage and he helped me tape it up. I said we could ice it but he didn’t think we needed to (it wasn’t swollen). I think I expected him to go into emergency responder mode and doctor it all up, but I guess he’s not a medical technician.

Right after we got a couple bandaids on him, Big T started to laugh and run again. I chased behind him trying to keep him still, or at least calm. He was trying to shush and cheer up his sister who was now crying because she thought we loved him more.

“No, we love you both equally,” I told her. “We just had to take care of your brother because he was hurt.” My kids are so stereotypical. Here my sun is running around laughing with a jacked up finger tip while my daughter is having an emotional meltdown (while now at least dressed in some pink pajamas) about us loving her brother more than her.

The rest of the evening before bed Big T was careful with his pinky finger. I didn’t think about it until after he fell asleep, but I probably could have given him some Motrin. I set it out in case he woke up overnight.

So I’ve been up Googling what I should have done and many sites say call a doctor if the nail is coming off… He may need stitches so the nail grows back normal etc etc. I’m panicking that I may have waited to long to call the doctor and consequently deformed his pinky fingernail for life! What if he never finds a wife?!

This is only one example of the intense amount of stress my sweet adventurous son has put me through. Laughter keeps me from crying, because I feel like I’m constantly on edge with him, worried he’s going to do something to injure himself. From jumping on the couch inches away from a cracked skull on the tile floor (we hardly use our family room because of that now) to running in the street (front yard off limits, back yard OK). To putting small things in his mouth because he knows it makes me mad (or to him, hysterically funny). To literally finding any hidden pair of scissors and RUNNING WITH THEM. Who does that? … My son! And he may cause me to have a heart attack before I’m 30.

I shoulda kept him on lockdown in the baby carrier. This is what I get!

But maybe I’m just overprotective and used to a (now seemingly) mellow daughter. Is this normal?

The funny thing is for Christmas we bought him a Power Wheels F-150 truck. He can’t drive it for awhile but he can sit in these things for hours (and his sister will be happy to chauffeur). Now I’m wondering what damage he could do in this thing. Of course he’ll be supervised, and to my knowledge, you can’t really run over YOURSELF with one of these things… So that’s something. Other than that I think we’ll get him some harmless bubbles. And while I’m at it maybe I can look into a toddler bubble he can live in for the next couple of years. Then maybe I can survive to see my 30s.

Normally I like to offer help and give advice but today, I need your words of encouragement. Moms of adventurous daredevils… How do you survive?

GIVEAWAY

If you’re still looking for more (safe) gift ideas, and you’re looking for something that can last a while, there’s a unique feature you might be interested in. It’s called Smart Stages™ technology, and Fisher-Price has incorporated it in many of their toys.

Basically it changes the content as the child grows so you can adapt the toy to cater to the development of your child.

For instance, in Stage 1 the songs and phrases presented will be different than Stage 2 or 3. With the train my son likes to change the stage on his own. He hasn’t figured out how to do that yet with his Smart Stages Chair so I’ve kept it at a level 1 for now and play those games with him, and hopefully, as he grows the new songs and sounds will give new life to an old toy and make it one we keep around for a long time.

Now if they could just put that all in a Power Wheels car that starts as a one seater with a push-button drive, that later converts into a two-seater ride with a petal push, and eventually transformed into a full-fledged four-wheeler then I’d be set.

Hey… A mom can dream.

I’ve mentioned the Smart Stages Train and Chair in the past, comment letting me know which one you think your kiddo would like most and you’ll be entered to win one! I’ll select someone from the comments as a winner December 19th.

This post was sponsored by Fisher-Price as a part of an ongoing partnership bringing my tips to you as an FP Insider. All opinions (and typos) are my own.

Tags: adventurous boy, big t, Fisher-Price, stories I want to remember