I really hope my son is not scarred for life.
There's I was enjoying some peace and quiet. Izy finally sleeping, the other kids all outside passing in the fluffy, powdery snow that they have up here in Idaho. It was actually fairly warm outside and the sun was out so I expected them to be gone for a while. All of the sudden I hear Alayna yelling my name, and I'll admit it I thought "please just give me a little bit longer". But there was something in her tone of voice so I rushed out and she said Noah asked into a tree. I started running and asked her where he was because my parents have a lot of land. She went to a section they weren't supposed to be sledding down and pointed. I slipped and slid down the hill in my tennis shoes when he came in sight my heart did a somersault. His face was smeared all over with bright red blood, and the air echoed with his screams. I froze inside for a split second and then "mom mode" kicked in. You know the one, it's the one that says, I have no idea what to do and what I do know seems too hard or gross but I'm the mom and there is no one else so I guess I'll do it. The same mode enabled me to reach into the toilet and outlook out a spoon that one of my children had knocked in just the week before. It was horrid but someone had to.
Any way, I slid the rest of the way down the hill and talked to him. He seemed coherent if upset and so I set about trying to get him up the hill. My shoes were slipping so bad I want being much traffic and after a short trial I determined that there was no Way I could carry him. Joseph Ammon said he had already tried so each of us got on a side and helped him the best we could up the hill. When one of us slipped and fell they would let go of Noah and the other would hold him up. Finally we got him to the top and inside to clean up and see what happened. I was relieved when I got his face washed off that his teeth were intact and the injuries while painful were relatively minor.
The picture here is after lots of ice and ibuprofen later that night. Now only a week later he has just a couple of scratches on his nose to show what happened. Of course, everyone is asking him what happened, and he typically replies "I learned that trees don't move." That's my boy! Gotta learn lessons from those difficulties in life. Keep it up.
So I'm not worried that the smart won't go away, but I am concerned that he won't want to sled anymore.
