I ask my son on our way  home from the hospital! Ah the joys of single motherhood. It’s now 11pm and he is finally asleep and I’m in my bed typing this post. Thirty minutes ago we returned from the requisite visit to the children’s hospital You know the one I’m referring to, right? Where your kid falls and his/her hand or foot hurts and you are going to get it X-Rayed just to be on the safe side. You basically waste the whole evening, because most often than not, it’s nothing… but hey, it was an adventure!

I took the kids to an event at the park this afternoon where they had about 5 different variations of the bouncy castle. My son wanted to do the one that looks like a mountain and you can climb it as if you were rock climbing. And of course like most of the children there, he figured why come down the way I went up? In other words, why climb down when I can just let go and fall. Like most mothers, when he told me of his plan I questioned its intelligence, noting that he could get hurt. He explained that he will fall safely (the way he was taught in Karate) by bringing his arms close to his body and when he gets close to the ground spreading them out. That of course was not the case in the end. In the end he fell on his foot!! So here I am trying to get some sort of an handle on my three year old daughter who is miss independent, has a mind of her own and according to my parents (and I quote) “is waaaaaay more stubborn than I was”… Or was it “you were not as stubborn”?! Does it really matter!! There was some really kind people at the park. One woman offered to watch over my son (once I helped him limp over to a free spot on the grass) as I went off with my 3 year old in my arms in search of a medic. Upon my return to my son there was a nice man speaking with him, assessing how badly he was hurt and whether he also hurt his head (asking him memory type questions). By the type of questions he was asking him and the questions he was asking me I surmised him to be a doctor of sorts. To make a long story short, he suggested that I take him to the hospital to get an X-Ray – always best to air on the side of caution.

BUT first, I have to call my mom. “Mom, can you please meet me at my place and take care of the little one while I go to the hospital… no it’s not serious… don’t worry….” What would I have done without my parents living nearby? Probably dragged my daughter with me! That would have been fun!!

And as we make the long drive downtown (about 45 minutes) – because that’s where the children’s hospital is located I think to myself 1) thank god it’s past rush hour 2) damn I’m missing the event I wanted to go to tonight… but that’s okay… I believe that things happen for a reason and 3) I wouldn’t trade this driver seat for anything in the world!!! And my son is in the back crying because it hurts. Now for the life of me I can’t remember what he said to me at that moment, but I do recall being careful and not saying “I told you so”. Instead I said to him “remember the conversation we had prior to you climbing that mountain bouncy castle? Remember that I told you that you could get hurt?!” To which he replies “I’m really sorry mommy”. To which I reply “I’m not mad at you. I’m not upset. I’m just sad that you are in pain. I want you to realise that you are going to have to think twice before you do something. Your health and your body are most important. Your body is your temple and you’ll need to respect it and take care of it. You will have many temptations in life. Friends will try and convince you to do things. Act on things. You will need to learn to stop and think and not be impulsive.” So… how many of you think that an eight year old would understand the whole “your body is a temple and you need to respect it” blah blah blah thought?! Yeah, I thought so!! BUT my son is very impulsive… so baby steps my friends, baby steps!!

So now we are all tucked in and the last conversation we had before I turned into our driveway was the fact the he thinks God created the world using art. He would put something into the world – a detail and then continue from there – one detail at a time, one brush stroke at a time, until he was done. “So yes mommy, I think God is an artist.” That’s an eight year old for you!

p.s. – is it wrong that I thought the man that took care of my son while I went to get the medic… well… is it wrong that I thought he was good looking? And I also checked to see if he had a wedding ring on. He was surrounded by whom I presume to be his four daughters. No wedding ring… but then again nowadays you just never know ;)!