I felt so incredibly bad for her. It was not fun. I guess she accidentally touched it. I was sitting right there on the floor in front of the fireplace, but I didn't see what happened. (I'm still working on the eyes in the back of the head thing.)
She's had a few rug burns before, and those are never fun either, but this was a whole new experience. Poor thing! The pain dance and shouting was immediate. "Oh Mommy, Oh Mommy, I touched the fireplace, Oh Mommy, Oh Mommy!! Then the tears and fear set in. "Mommy, I'm scared, Mommy, I'm scared." And the crying.
Did I mention it wasn't any fun?
We immediately went to the bathroom sink to run her fingers under the ice cold water on tap. She was staring into my eyes, crying. How do you tell your child that the pain they are feeling isn't really gonna stop anytime soon? Not soon for a 3.5 year old, anyway.
I told her to keep her fingers under the water so I could grab an icepack. She didn't want me to leave her at all, but I told her I'd be right back. In the background, Dean was starting to cry too. He absolutely hates when Ava gets upset. If she starts crying, he gets very worried and sympathetic and then he starts crying. So, now I hear them both.
I scurried to the freezer. We have a few of those soft gel ice packs, one Nemo and one princess. I grabbed the Nemo and rushed back to her. First though, I needed to take a closer look. All I saw was red. Yikes. But, no blisters. Good, at least! I could tell that it only slightly affected the inside of her index and middle finger on both hands.
When I was about 6 years old, I had a pretty bad burn on the top of my right hand. My sister was having problems with her math homework so I had the grand idea of getting my "counting disks" to help her. My sister is 6 years older than I, my counting disks weren't going to help, but I didn't realize that at the time. When I presented them to her, she wasn't really in the mood. Feeling defeated, I went to find my Mom, who was ironing. She had her back to the ironing board and I slapped my envelope filled with "counting disks" up on the surface. The hot iron fell right on my hand. OUCH! My index finger was burned the worst, it immediately started blistering in huge clear blisters. Apparently, that's where the steam holes were...and, well, they did what they do...steam. I had to go to the ER, etc, and it is something I will never forget.
Anyway, back to Ava. I was glad I didn't see any blisters. But, I felt so bad. Then she started in with the questions and the comments:
"How many minutes until it stops hurting, Mommy?"
"Will it stop before Daddy gets home from work?"
"Why won't it stop stinging so much?"
"Mommy, I'm hot and I'm cold."
I put on her favorite show and we laid down on the sofa. She was cold because of the ice pack so I covered her up with a blanket. After a while, she calmed down and started joking. Then the gel pack lost its chill and she started to get upset again. I exchanged it out for another one. All was good again.
A little more time passed and she started testing her limits. She'd lift her finger off the ice pack and see if it still hurt. It did. Eventually though, she announced that the middle fingers were all better. Then her left hand was better. Finally, her right hand followed suit. Thank goodness.
I checked her fingers tonight and there are actually 2 blisters. One on top of each index finger. I tried to snap a pic but it's hard to see. Not a proud Mommy moment and not a fun experience to add to my Mommy files. Sniff, sniff.
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