Our Exciting Yom Kippur

Baruch took Ezra to shul in the morning, and just as I was getting the babies ready to join them, they came back because Ezra was crying for me. So then he wanted lunch, and by the time he finished eating the babies were napping again, so we were playing in the playroom. Ezra kept laying on the floor and once on the sofa, and was obviously tired, so I figured I'd try to take him upstairs for a nap. Now, this is a child who won't nap anymore unless he falls asleep in the car or on a walk. So I read him a book a few times and then I closed my eyes and said I was going to sleep, and he could lay down next to me and sleep. And he threw the book at me.

This book is a board book, one of those hard cardboard ones, about airplanes. He threw it at close range, and this boy has quite an arm (really, he can throw very well, and he's strong). It hit me on the forehead right above my right eye.

I grabbed my head and started saying "OW! OW!". I thought I was exaggerating for Ezra's sake, to show him how bad it is to throw things, but it kept hurting. A lot. Baruch was downstairs with the babies, but he came running up. When I took my hand away from my head there was blood everywhere! What a surprise. I looked in the mirror and washed it off and it was immediately obvious that I needed stitches. So I called my mother, who called her plastic surgeon, and she picked me up and took me to the plastic surgeon. It is about an inch-long laceration running vertically on the inside edge of my right eyebrow. Tomorrow when I take the bandage (the outer bandage over the steri-strips and stitches) off I will take a photo, and if it's not too gross I might post it. I don't know how many stitches I got, but it was quite a few. The surgeon said that Ezra might make a great pitcher for the Yankees someday. She said, "this is really quite a bit deeper than I'd expected from the mechanism..." That's my boy! lol

Baruch says Ezra cried when I left (he was upset by the blood, and has been very clingy lately anyway), and then laid down on the kitchen floor, crying, and went to sleep. So Baruch put him to bed. Ari slept the whole time I was gone, too. So thankfully it was not difficult for Baruch with all 3 to himself.

Interestingly, I wasn't very mad at Ezra. He was obviously upset by what happened, and I told him that I know he didn't mean to hurt me, but that this is why he can NOT throw things. Unfortunately I don't think he got the message, as he continued to throw things later in the day, but at least he threw them at the floor and not at anybody. I'm going to have to get stricter about his tendency to be physically violent when frustrated or upset. I feel bad for him because he just gets so upset and doesn't know how to handle it, but he needs to know that he is capable of hurting people.

And now I am finally going to go to sleep. I'm exhausted and I have a headache. I was so shaky after the stitches, since I was fasting. The surgeon said I ought to have something so I drank a little water and ate an apple. But even so, that is not much to last an entire day, especially while nursing 2 hungry babies. We had fun at our family's break fast tonight, though. Cheese grits and cake were my favorites!