The Dangers of Being the Youngest

I usually only post once a week, but we had an incident that prompted a second post this weekend. Last night while Whit and Patrick played upstairs Bean and Samanthat were left alone in the playroom in the basement I was in the family room watching college football when I heard Samantha’s raised voice. I didn’t pay much attention because Samantha’s ire is not uncommon. Plus, I was watching separation Saturday, so I was somewhat zoned out after watching BYU choke against BC and Notre Dame suck against Michigan.
Suddenly there was a crash and Lauren started in on an ear-piercing scream. I ran downstairs to find Lauren bleeding from a gash under her right eye. Apparently Samantha had been playing with a toy garbage truck and her big bad one-year-old little sister had the nerve to try and play with it too. Samantha picked up the truck and threw it at Lauren’s face, causing the bloodshed.

I took Lauren upstairs where Kate and I washed the wound. After a short break about whether or not she needed stitches, Kate loaded Bean in the car and drove to her mother’s house for a second opinion. The cut wasn’t long, maybe ¾ of an inch, but right under the eye, we didn’t want scarring.
After Pat examined the wound, Drew was dispatched to the grocery store to buy some superglue. And instead of taking the baby to the hospital for a stitch, Kate and Pat glued the wound closed. This may seem odd, and a bit dangerous, but emergency rooms have been doing this for years, and Kate and Pat are both nurses. So Lauren now has a nice little cut under her eye with a little bit of leftover superglue, which just looks like dried snot. She looked like a prize fighter after a tough boxing match.
The swelling has gone down today, and she looks much better. But this isn’t the first time Lauren has been injured at Samantha’s hand, nor will it be the last. A few months ago I came down to the family room to find Patrick and Samantha rolling balls down the stairs into the playroom. They have a bucket full of basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and the like. I didn’t see any trouble in this so I admonished them to be careful.
A few minutes later I heard a cry from the basement and looked to the playroom to see that Bean was right in the path of the rolling balls and that Samantha had just beaned her with a soccer ball.
“Be careful, guys.” I said to Patrick and Samantha. “You just hit the Bean.”
“But we’re trying to hit Bean.” Patrick explained. “We’re bowling.”
I felt bad putting the bowling game to an end, but Patrick and Samantha had to find a new ten-pin.