Parks and Burns

Today we had a play date in the park after school with one of Joshua's friends from school. The kids all had fun, except it ended up being the worst playdate ever because while we were having our picnic, Joshua was messing around near the fire pit that, unbeknownst to anyone, had been recently used. Of course, I do always tell him never to go near any fire pit, but he didn't take that one to heart since it didn't look hot. He touched some of the ash in the pit and burned two of his fingers. It wasn't a terrible burn as burns go, luckily, but it was still a burn. So he spent most of the play date crying really loudly and going to the bathroom to rinse his fingers. We would have left immediately, but our doctor didn't reopen from lunch for awhile so we had some time to kill. I actually regret taking him to the doctor because he started feeling better by then and their assessment was basically "Yep. It's a burn. Don't pop the blisters". Which though I don't have a medical degree, I had actually already made that assessment and since our doctor is not super close, it ended up taking quite some time to go do that.

Joshua is a trooper even though he did cry a lot. In between rinses of his fingers, he learned how to do the monkey bars. Who does the monkey bars when their hand is burned? But he was really proud because he had been working on it for awhile. Clara couldn't really deal with him doing it without her, so she learned too. And then when we got to the doctor, she thought she should be examined as well because she had some pain in her hand from doing it so much. I explained to her she didn't need a doctor and she would be fine after nap, but she seemed like she thought I wasn't taking her seriously enough.

The next day, we went back to the park, though it wasn't a play date this time. I just wanted Joshua to have a positive experience so he wouldn't think of this as the "burning pain" park. He spent most of his time perfecting his monkey bar technique.

But it was so nice that we spent a long time there so we had time to play in other parts of the park too and also went on a bike ride on the trail. 

I didn't get a good photo of him wearing it on his bike ride, but this is Joshua's new helmet. He is really excited about it. His last helmet was broken and also barely fit his head so it was definitely time for an upgrade and this is a very popular style among boys his age since it combines mohawks and dinosaurs.