Crazy BoYs!!

A week after getting back from their UT trip, and me alone with all 4 kids, Jackson and Harrison decided 8 years of kids without any emergency stitches was long enough...  :/

After a frustrating morning with these wild boys stuck in the house and bored with way too much energy and no ability to listen or follow instructions, the boys were sent to their bedroom to sit on their beds in a "Time Out".  It hadn't been more than 5 minutes when Jackson came to get me, hysterically crying and panicked, followed by a very bloody Harrison who seemed to be more in shock.  I took Harrison in the bathroom to clean him up and had Jackson follow me to explain. 

It turned out that while they were stuck on their beds they thought it would be funny to throw things at each other.  "Funny" was the word Jackson used.  The toy they were throwing was a foam covered Thor hammer.  Covered completely, except for the very tip of the handle, where a very hard piece of plastic pile stuck out.  That piece of plastic was the precise part of the hammer that happened to hit Harrison in the head!!  (It wasn't very big, but it was pretty deep and kind of hung open.)

Jackson was obviously pretty traumatized by all the blood, and he felt pretty bad.  I told him Harrison was going to be fine but would probably need some stitches and to go wait on his bed until I came to get him.  He seemed to calm down, but he was still pretty worried.  Good!  Stinking kids don't think about what would happen if what I am always telling them is going to happen... actually happens!  Seriously, I don't talk just to hear my own voice!  Sigh....

Funny enough, Harrison was very calm about it all... until he saw himself in the mirror!  He was standing facing the mirror and sink while I was cleaning his face off, and few seconds after looking at himself, he told me he was going to be sick!  Hahaha. I probably would have actually laughed out loud if he hadn't gone pail as a sheet.  But it was kind of funny.  ;)  He was fine after a minute on the floor, so we finished cleaning him up and stopped the bleeding.  He still didn't feel very good, so I sent him to his bed too.

With them both on their beds, I sat down to talk to them about what happened and what it meant to need stitches.  I thought their eyes were going to bug out of their heads when I explained it.  So naturally, after waiting for Patrick to get home from work, I made Jackson go to the Urgent Care with us to watch!  (I know, I'm mean!  But we were going to learn from this if it killed us!) 

After attempting to glue it (that's the purple stuff, it's not a bruise), it had to be cut back open and then stitched shut.  Harrison was incredibly brave!  He cried for just a second when they started numbing him, but he just squeezed my hand and kept his eyes closed!  Jackson nervously talked the nurses ear off and paced the room.  Hahaha. 

When it was all over, Jackson was very proud of Harrison, and very glad it wasn't him who had to get stitches!  And Harrison was pretty sure he should get a prize for being so brave!  Hahaha.  Nice try Bubba.  He seemed to think he wasn't at fault in any of this, so we talked in the car about it again, what had happened and what they had learned, their responses were these:
Harrison:  "We don't throw toys!  Especially at our heads!"
Jackson:  "Listen to Mom!"

It wasn't a cheap lesson, but at least they seemed to sort of grasp it!  ;)  At least until they get carried away again!