Raging Dad

Patrick J. Lynch, illustrator

It has been unusually hot in the Pacific Northwest this week, necessitating us bringing out the kiddie pool. Now, when describing Sonny’s gifts, I would not include among them words like, “nimble,” or “agile,” or even “stable.” Sonny is a topsy-turvy child; he can sit on the floor and manage to fall over. It is amazing.

Yesterday, Sonny came flying into the house with wet feet, and upon reaching the smooth bathroom floor, promptly slipped and his head kissed the ceramic bowl. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Poor fella. Certainly, this was not his first head injury; hard wood floors are an excellent tool for demonstrating the evolutionary brilliance of the soft, pliable infant skull. He griped all day, which is pretty much par for the course these days, but Sonny did seem to be particularly troubled. He spent the night in our Not-so Raging Bed, which meant that Raging Dad spent the night in Connie’s extra twin bed, with lots of snuggles. Actually, it was a pretty sweet deal for me, considering that Sonny was up most of the night with head pain.

Raging Mom took him in to Urgent Care in the morning, and get this: they wouldn’t even look at him! So she had to take Sonny to the ER. Bear in mind that Sonny was not only in terrible pain at this point, but now he was sleep deprived and had just freaked out because brother Michael was convincing him that he would receive shots from the doctor. Little terror. After deciding against a CT scan, the ER sent the two of them home with concussion instructions and over-the-counter pain killers.

There is a silver lining in this grim tale. I ended up spending the afternoon with Michael at a barbecue party with some friends, Connie went off with a friend to see “Diego Live,” and Raging Mom spent the afternoon alone with Sonny. We all had a great time. I found myself thrilled to pal around with Michael amongst my friends, and Raging Mom was reminded of what a sweet, caring little boy Sonny is when he is not trying to compete with two other siblings for attention. It was almost as though we were parents of singletons. I think we need to do this more often, taking just one of the kids out and spending some special quality time with them, without their siblings. We just need to find ways to do it without involving a head injury.