A childhood rite of passage

Ok out there: hands up those of you who have some kind of scar somewhere on your face from a childhood tumble? I do, mine's on my right eyelid -- no kidding -- and I got it from falling down my parents back steps (3 steps only, but they are cement) when I was two. The Man has one on his eyebrow. Anyone else?

My son didn't.

UNTIL TODAY.

The first thing they say is "it's the daycare, don't panic" and I don't, because they've called before about general issues, but then she says "The Boy took a small tumble and cut open his chin, and we think he might need stitches or at least some glue."

And I say, "Ok" I'm already packing up my things and she says "Will you come and get him?" And I think ... uh, do you even have to ask?

"I'm on my way," I say. Just a few minutes.

There's an Urgent Care Centre right between my office and his daycare, and that's where we go first only to be told that there's at least an hour wait and there are so many sick people around and ugh, I hate hospitals. So there's a clinic nearby, I get the phone number and they cheerfully tell me there's a 20 minute wait, so I high tail it out of there and get to the clinic. In the end with all the driving I think I probably made it home around the same time that I would have from Urgent Care, but this way I got to sit in a nice airy, bright waiting room where there were lots of toys and the people were relaxed vs. the gross sterile hospital care waiting place.

He's got his chin glued back together -- no needles / stitches this way. And from my stoic child there were no tears or hysterics, just a few whimpers and some "mommy, I'm scared!" (They told me that at daycare, he cried after he fell, and being that it was the first time since he started 3.5 months ago that he shed a tear, they knew it was serious.)

And now he's had some dinner and some advil and is watching a favourite movie and there will be bed in an hour. And probably a small scar on his chin, that some day he'll show his friends and tell them how he got it from a fall at daycare when he was three, and his mom had to come and get him and take him to a clinic to have him put back together.

It'll be a bonding experience. Girls might think it's cute. And I'm just so glad that he too will have a story to tell about his injuries.

Well. Kind of.