1.25.2010

twice shy

jesse called me on friday afternoon and said, "well, our little guy got bit at preschool today." i am thinking, okay, ant?, spider? guinea fowl? so i say, "by what?" and he says, "by another kid."
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aaaaand, cue murderous rage. the expression "seeing red" is not something people just made up out of the blue. when i heard that some other kid had hurt my child, nay, BIT my BABY, i felt a veil of crimson descend upon my vision. luckily it's school policy not to tell the parents which child did the biting and in those first few seconds of blinded rage i was very glad that i didn't know who it was. not that i would ever beat up a little kid, but i definitely had visions of sending in a hit-toddler to do my dirty work for me and pay back judah's assailant. the anger lasted about 10 seconds and then i was just soul-ravaged by sadness for my little man.
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his daily report. i assume like any police-issued citation that they made the offender sign this report, thus the scribbles above the offense (court date TBD)
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here's the lowdown: judah is the youngest of all the kids in his class by at least 3 months. in addition, all the other kids can walk and he can't even crawl. so what happened was that judah was in his little bouncer happily boing-ing the day away. a little girl in the class who is really attached to one of their teachers saw that teacher changing another baby's diaper and got jealous. so to get attention she acted out. she acted out all up on my sweet baby's cranium. i have to give it to her for finding the most helpless kid in class to pick on. he can't locomote anyway PLUS he was confined in the bouncer like a clueless capering baby caribou that gets picked off from the herd by the wolves.
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nope, that's not lipstick and it definitely wasn't a smooch

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after examining his poor little head i am REALLY glad that she went for his head and not a more squishy part of his body. you can see that she came in mouth wide open. unable to gain dental purchase on a big mouthful of his skull, she dragged her teeth down out of his hairline and up his forehead until she got a little skin between her teeth. if this had been his arm i bet it would have been much worse since that first huge bite would have been possible. i have considered using the dental records she left on my child's forehead to identify the attacker. i know there are at least 4 bottom teeth.
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i picture his inner monologue here being something akin to the nancy kerrigan, "WHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!"
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let me just say that we love judah's preschool and his teachers (especially the foxy director!). they do an amazing job and this had absolutely zero to do with them. this is just something that happens with kids this age. the school immediately called jesse and let him know exactly what had happened and they comforted judah and iced his head. they told the little girl's parents and issued her a warning. at some point if she keeps doing it she can't come back to preschool. after hearing that, i would much rather have a bruised baby than have our ability to keep him in daycare (necessary for us both to work and earn money to live) rest on the behavior of my toddler. poor parents. we truly feel awful for them.
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i think he's gonna be okay
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i guess somewhere in the back of my mind i knew that someone other than me or jesse would hurt judah. i say that because, at this age, if he gets hurt it's probably because me or jesse is being an idiot. this was just awful though. i wasn't there to stop it and i wasn't there to comfort him when it happened. i feel confident that it hurt me more than it hurt the bug. oh well, i'm sure this won't be the last time and the emotional ouchies that other kids inflict will suck way more. must. gird up. my loins.
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on the upside, ever since judah got home that day he has been a fiend about standing and cruising (aka walking around while holding onto various things). it was like a baby "rocky" montage taking place in our living room: he's been knocked down early on, but he's rising up and getting back on the streets, he did his time and took his chances; just a baby and his will to survive. he seems determined to walk ASAP all of a sudden and we think the bite was the impetus. we don't know if he plans to walk to escape her or to hunt her down and pay her back (which could be bad since he only has 2 bottom teeth. hello, punctures!). we are just glad that he will have the option of fight or flight next time.
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practicing watching his back and defending with an arm-sweep


"i'm coming for you, bee-atch!"

5 comments:

  1. O poor Judah! Glad he is alright and if he is anything like his momma he will get her back!

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  2. *sigh* She thinks I'm foxy...

    But really, thanks for the high point of my day--I love your writing and I love Judah, and I'm glad the bite looked so much better today. I hated it when Drew was bitten by a different child earlier this year (the bite was in self defense, but still). PS...the offender is only there 2 days a week. K

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  3. nice kotex (oh yeah, and I'm glad Judah's ok)

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  4. I realized this weekend that I go back to work in 2 weeks. So today I visited daycare to finish paper work and see the class. I left very sad that someone else will be taking care of him. And now I'm a bit frightened, I think I should have read this on a different day when my emotions weren't so raw. I'm glad to see that Judah isn't phased by the incident.

    ps. nice Nancy Kerrigan reference

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  5. OK...I've got tears in my eyes, and want to quit working and take care of him to avoid this kind of thing from happening!!!! (At least until another Dukes comes along -- trauma does happen at home!) That picture was just so pitiful. I'm sure both of you want to quit working too!

    I loved the way you thought through this tho, Keight...it's such a helpless feeling to know as hard as we want to protect our kids, we can't protect them from everything. We've got to get him over here so I can kiss the spot myself!!! Love that bug! (Check my FB page to see the comment one of my oldest friends from KV made about him.)

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