The Adventures of Paul

Paul is quite adventurous and daring, and he believes he can do almost anything his older siblings can do. He often performs daring maneuvers, such as jumping off high objects, and he lands in such a way that he almost does a somersault from the force of the impact. But then he jumps up and says, "I OK!" and then runs off to play some more. You need this background to understand my reactions in the following story.

Yesterday after Josh's soccer practice, I let the kids play at the playground for 10 or 15 minutes before coming home. I pushed Erica in the swing while the others played. At one point Paul was crying, and I went over to check him out. He is usually fine unless he is bleeding. I brushed off the wood chips, showing him that there was no blood, and he was fine. I asked him what had happened, and he showed me what he had jumped off of. It was a platform that was as high as the tips of his fingers when he stretched as high as he could reach. Then he went off to play until I said it was time to go. The children didn't want to leave, and there was some whining, but I started walking for the car because it was time to go. Paul whined the most, and then he complained that he couldn't walk because his foot hurt. I had no compassion and made him walk. In fact at one point Megan was going to give him a piggy back ride, but I said no because he shouldn't get things for crying.

On the way home, Paul continued to whine and cry and complain about his foot. I was thinking that he must be ready for bed. At one point I asked Brittany to take off his sandal and look at his foot for him. She was nice and helped him settle down some. After we got home, he continued to complain about his foot and say that he couldn't walk. So Kyle and I checked him out, but we didn't really see anything, no bruising or swelling. We carried him around until bed time and hoped he'd forget it by the morning. I was beginning to have visions of my 3 year old with a cast on his foot for weeks.

In the morning, Paul said his foot still hurt, and he still wanted to be carried. I decided we'd better get it checked out. We went to the doctor this morning, who decided that it was just sprained (especially since there wasn't swelling). I am glad to avoid fractures and casts. He now just limps around. Paul has been temporarily slowed down, but it remains to be seen whether he learns a lesson.