'Asly'dent-proned (or "accident-proned")

"She did what?"

Faith went to work last night and I tagged along with about 20 volunteers from Ridgeview. As usual, Faith and I got separated and I ended up in pre-inspection where all the money is handled. I did some unpacking and loading of carts as well. I'll shut up now and get on with the story - sorry! So, my cell phone rings and it's Faith's mom who is watching the kids. I had just delivered some of her shoeboxes so there was nothing really suspicious about the call. Maybe she forgot something...

"Aslynn burned herself." I can hear Aslynn crying in the background. She does that.
"She did what?" It was noisy where I was.
"On the fireplace, she burned her hand(s)." Now I'm starting to get the picture.
"Is she okay?" But I'm no Sherlock Holmes.
"How bad is it?" Faith comes around the corner to say 'Hi' and I just look at her with 'that' look.
"It's pretty bad. She's got some blisters." At this point I'm thinking Is this hospital-worthy?
"I've got her hands in cold water. At first she refused, but she's doing a bit better now..."

I talked with Mom a bit longer, handed the phone off to Faith, then finished the conversation and took a consensus from the people around us as to what we ought to do. I concluded that there's was nothing more that could be done except comfort, which Grandma's are exceptionally good at. Micah was behaving well and was being the good, concerned, compassionate brother that he often is. So - I thought of leaving, but stayed.

We got off of shift and arrived at the house. Over the phone I thought it was just part of one hand that was burned. Both hands. Second degree burns. They were red and puffy, blisters on the fingertips of her left hand and blisters across the back of her fingers on the right. She must have tripped and caught herself on the fireplace glass. That's the closest we can figure. She could hardly stand to have her hands out of the water for more than two minutes.

"Hot, hot! Oweeeee. OweeeeEEEE!" Her little feet would stomp and crying would ensue. It was painful for us too. There's a sick, helpless feeling you get knowing that even if you were there there would be nothing you could do to change what happened or fix the hurt, but at least you could've been there. We got Aslynn & Micah home and ran some more cold water for her seared hands. By this time it was 10:30pm and we called the Health Link for advice. I got Micah to bed with a story, blankets, and teddies. Then we dried her hands, added Polysporin, bandaged them with gauze, and gave her some Tylenol. Faith cuddled with her until after 11:30pm. Slowly the screaming died down, she gave up the fight, and Aslynn drifted into sleep.

Faith came to bed, but we left the doors open. It was one of those 'first' nights, like when you have your first baby. Your ears are finely tuned to any sound or movement. You hear a rustle, or a whimper, and you want to do something about it. Neither of us slept well. I gave Aslynn some Tylenol in the middle of the night when she lost her 'soo-soo' and couldn't put it back in her mouth because of the bandages on her hands.

It's going to be an interesting week. Aslynn is super-independent. She got part of a thumb free and proceeded to tell me that she could eat her OWN cereal. I finally got her to eat, but after every two bites she refused to eat unless SHE could do it. She is stubborn. I was relentless. An hour later, she got her thumb further out and I re-bandaged both hands and put thumb-less mittens on her. She thought it was cool, so she's still wearing them. She calls them her 'hot-hots'. That was her name for mittens before, because they look like oven mitts, and when she's by the oven we say, "Hot, hot!" So she's wearing her 'hot-hots' now. She'll have trouble getting those off. Actually, we may have trouble getting those off!

She ate her 'cheese kupuch' (Mac & Cheese w/ hotdogs & ketchup) much better at lunch. We only fought at the beginning of the meal. I just hope we can take the gloves off before we unwrap gifts anywhere. That could be an adventure...

- Mark

PS: Faith will have time to write more in the near future hopefully (if OCC ever finishes before Christmas or if she can set our little girl down without tears.)