Ouch!

Nathan is one of those little boys that wakes up each morning and runs to the backyard. He will do without breakfast just to be outside. Rain or shine, he's still out there. And even if he is only in a t-shirt and diaper and it is super cold, he would still rather be outside than taking the time to put a jacket and some pants on. He is so unlike me. I am amazed at how many hours this little two-year-old can spend in the backyard, one that is somewhat small in the middle of a neighborhood where the homes are almost literally stacked on top of each other. But outside stays that little man. He has adventures with mud and more mud, he loves digging in the dirt, and last week we even found a little snake. Sometimes there are lizards. Quite frequently lady bugs. And he loves to scream at the birds and try to chase them. Sometimes a neighbor's ball will end up in our yard and he loves to throw it over the fence of a different neighbor who is a single lady without children. And then when she discovers the ball in her backyard she throws it back over the fence to us. It makes Nathan so mad because it isn't our ball and why can't she just keep it in her yard? Once she was outside when he decided to throw the ball back to her yard where it didn't belong. So she threw it right back over. She is a very nice person, thankfully. And Nathan picked that ball right back up, screamed in frustration and threw it back over the fence. And she threw it right back. Nathan stormed in the house, mad as all get out, and complained that our neighbor needs to keep her ball in her own yard. I tried to explain that it wasn't her ball at all, but he told me it was hers and she needs to stop throwing it back over the fence. It just made me laugh.

With all the adventure out back, there is bound to be an injury. One of the slats to the fence came loose, probably because Nathan was peeking into the other neighbor's yard who does have a child. Nathan pulled that slat completely off the fence and in the process managed to get a whole plethora of splinters. (I had to use a big word there because I actually thought of one. go me!)I tried to pull the splinters out, but Nathan wouldn't have anything to do with that. I kissed it better and he still cried and finally gave up and went back outside. He was so proud of those splinters when his hero (his dad) came home that evening. Check out the splinters under his nail! He had two more under there that he did let me pull out. OUCH!

It has been two weeks since he got those splinters. I took another child to the doctor and while I was there asked her if she thought I should make an appointment to get them out. They hadn't become infected and worked themselves out. She said I needed to get them out. And then this last week passed and quite frankly I forgot about them. I checked out his cute little pudgy fingers this morning and the splinters are gone. He still has the ones under his nail, but as his nail has grown, the splinter are coming out too.