Today I got the call that all mother’s dread getting.

“Mrs. Just?  This is the nurse at Boals Elementary.  I have Matthew here.  He fell and busted his chin open and I think he’s going to need a stitch or two.”

Great.  Just what I was hoping to do during nap time today.

I called the pediatrician on the way to the school and they asked me to pick him up then call back.  I did, and when I described the wound, they said I should bring him in.

Now, mind you, Matthew wasn’t crying.  He wasn’t fussing.  He was ECSTATIC to be leaving school early!  So you can imagine how silly I felt in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, watching him play with his brothers while holding a white gauze pad on his chin with one hand.  Just seemed silly.

However, once they rinsed it off and I got a good look at it – wow!  It was deep!  I tried to take a picture but it was hard to get a good one with my phone:

They gave me the option of stitches or skin glue, to which Matthew piped in and said “I don’t really know what a stitch is but it doesn’t sound good.”  The doctor got a good laugh at that.  So we opted for the glue and it took two nurses and a whole lot of squeezing to get the wound glued shut.  Here is the “after” shot:

Believe it or not, he never cried – not once.  I was so proud of him.  But I could have smacked Peter.

When the doctor came in, he asked Matthew what happened and Matthew started with “I wasn’t running, I wasn’t jumping or doing anything wrong.  I just slipped on some water in the bathroom and hit my chin on the floor.”  The doctor replied “Oh sure.  Anytime someone starts a story with ‘I wasn’t doing anything wrong,’ I get suspicious!”  Then, as he was leaving the room, he said “Whatever it was you weren’t doing in the bathroom, don’t do it again, okay?”  And my smart alec  8-year-old said “Well, since he said he wasn’t running, does that mean you want him to run next time?”

Ugh.