Today we had a bit of an adventure, if you could call it that. I took the boys to McDonald's for lunch so they could expend some energy at the playplace. The play area was really packed, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find a place to sit at first. Some other people had left by the time I ordered the food, though, so we were soon settled.
Everything was going really well. The boys ate their food, and were playing happily. Simeon was gleefully gumming french fries, and I was looking at a cooking magazine that I got in the mail earlier. Before long, there was a little boy that came crying to his mom at the table next to us. I was desperately hoping that one of my children hadn't hit him. While anxiously waiting to see if he would point to one of my boys as the "hitter", another boy came down to the same table where his mom was also sitting. He started telling her about someone saying they were going to get blood on him, which was weird, and I again hoped that it wasn't one of my kids. I was pondering these mysteries and trying to imagine that some kid had picked a scab or something (some kid other than mine, I should say), when at least one of my questions was abruptly answered.
Malachi came out from the play place and began walking over to me. His nose was bleeding. It was really bleeding. He had blood all over his mouth and chin and hands and dripping on his shirt. It was singularly the most shocking thing I have ever seen. I had not at all expected to see this, my child covered in blood.
I quickly brought him to our table and sat him down. I asked him if what happened, if someone hit him. He said, no, it was just "a dry nose like you get" (I do often get nosebleeds in this dry climate). I had him hold a napkin to his nose while I got the wipes out and started cleaning his hands and arms which were all smudged. I can't really say what was going on in the rest of the playplace. I don't know if people were freaked out or concerned or oblivious. My mind was a blank, and I only saw Malachi. I do know that the table next to us, the one with the little boys I mentioned earlier seemed concerned, in a nice way, and one of them told the McDonald's people, who gave me a stack of napkins and temporarily closed the tubes and slides to make sure they were clean. I am just glad they didn't kick us out or something. That would have been really humiliating.
Soon Chi was all cleaned up, and I had him sit at the table for a little while to make sure he was okay and his nose had fully stopped bleeding. I was worried because he has never really had a nosebleed before, but he seemed fine and he played with his happy meal toy and acted completely normal. Eventually I let him get up, and he went and raced his toy against the other kids' toys. He was fine. I was not. I think I was slightly in shock. I didn't cry, but I felt dangerously close to doing so. It occured to me that other people probably would have left immediately after such an incident, but I honestly didn't feel I had strength emotionally to gather all my children and our stuff and get them out to the van at that time. Even though he was okay, the sight of all that blood was frightening.
So that was my day. Everything else that happened today sort of pales in comparison to that one incident. I'm telling you, it's enough to make a person never want to leave the house.
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