A Mommy Story

We had a first today. Laura brought her twins over for a playdate, along with McD’s breakfast and coffee. (I love any playdate who brings food and coffee!)

That wasn’t the first. Well, I mean, it was Laura’s first time over here, and hopefully after today it won’t be the last.

No, the first was this: Cordy had her first head wound as a result of a meltdown.

The morning was going really well. Cordy was running around the backyard with Grant and Stella, having a blast picking “flowers” (weeds) and playing with the sand table. But when it was time to come back inside, Cordy had a meltdown because I wouldn’t let her bring a rock inside with her.

Yes, it’s a minor thing, but I have to stand firm with her on things like that, or we’d have a house full of rocks, weeds, and cups of sand dumped on the carpet. And sand is a bitch to get out of carpet.

This meltdown started like any other: the high-pitched whining that turned into sobs, throwing herself down on the floor, screaming, etc. Then she progressed to Stage 2 – rolling around on the floor while pounding her fists into the carpet, screaming continuing.

Stage 3 was next, and this involves hitting her head into the floor or wall. This is expected, and I try to ignore her at this point, since I don’t want to encourage her in this type of behavior. It sounds awful, but she has a thick skull, and she only rarely gives herself a bruise.

So when the meltdown began, I advised Laura to bring the twins into the living room and we’d play while letting Cordy work out her frustration in the dining room by the back door. As we sat down, the first *bang* was heard, and I knew she was hitting her head into the door. I explained to Laura that she does this a lot, and we just ignore her.

The screaming continued, and the *bang*‘s continued. After one particularly loud *bang*, I turned around to check on her, and that’s when I saw it. Blood. Streaming down the right side of her face. Lots. of. blood.

I jumped up and ran over to her, wondering how in the world she managed to bloody herself. Cordy didn’t seem to notice the blood now dripping down onto her shirt as she continued her meltdown chant of “Outside! Outside!” Laura fetched wet paper towels for me, and I began wiping off her face, looking for the source of the blood. It just kept coming, and I started to follow the flow up into her hairline, now stained with a streak of red. I finally found the opening – a half-inch cut about two inches above her temple.

She’s OK – it’s a small cut and not very deep. But it did scare me, and it wasn’t a great way to end our first playdate together. It’s no wonder we don’t get many playdate offers.

I can’t believe she split her head open because I told her to leave a rock outside. Someday I will show this entry to her, like when she’s a teen and thinks she’s so much cooler than her mom. Oh yeah? At least I didn’t give myself a gaping head wound over a rock, genius.