Aaron and I
were watching Wheel of Fortune after supper last night when he decided to run
upstairs to get something from his room.
He had just started bounding up the stairs when I heard the louder than
usual thump..........the sound that told me Aaron had fallen on the
stairs. I waited for a few seconds, then
heard him groan as he got up and proceeded to tell me that he had fallen but
that he was fine. He went on to his room,
and then returned to sit beside me and go over his list of hurts from the fall. He pointed to a place on his leg that looked
somewhat like an old bruise to me.........then to another place that may have
been a recent scrape........and to a finger that I know without a doubt had
nothing to do with the loud thump on the steps.
Aaron tends to point to every bruise, scrape, scab, and hang nail when
he falls - trying to convince me that he is seriously injured. This is why it's hard to know when to take
his complaints seriously.
"Oh,
and my toe," he said as he pulled off his slipper and his slipper
sock. "My toe hurts!" And indeed it did look a little puffy
already, but still I wasn't positive. As
the night wore on, he limped around the house, and he still told us about how
badly his toe hurt. Aaron has a high
tolerance for pain, but he does love to bemoan over and over about the fact
that he is hurting. Therefore, after
listening to his nearly constant run-down of his injured toe, my tolerance for
his pain was low.........very, very low.
I was glad when I was finally able to close his bedroom door after
several good-nights, and is it going to rain, and I hope I can sleep with my
sore toe, and did Dad turn the heat on, and what's the outdoor temperature, and
my toe is very sore. "We'll talk in
the morning, Aaron," I said, and breathed a sigh of relief as I walked up
the hall.
He was up
early this morning, before 7:00, and very slowly made his way down the
stairs........two sets of stairs.........to find me at the computer. Of course, before I could even ask about his
toe, he launched into how his toe hurt and how hard it was to sleep. I looked at his toe, and sure enough it was
red and swollen, with a small lump on top.
I texted Andrea for advice and she said he should be seen because a
broken big toe is more serious than any of the other toes. This pleased Aaron greatly. Now he was being taken seriously, he thought,
and besides.........this would mean another day at home and another doctor
visit and maybe lunch out and plenty of attention.
Finally,
after lots of his sighing and continual reminding me of just how sore his toe
was, I told him to stop talking about it.
Yes, I did. Sometimes he has more
drama than a pre-teen girl when it comes to his aches and pains.....and I was
in no mood, even after two cups of coffee.
He didn't mind, though, because by then I had made him an appointment at
the air base clinic and he could see his fun day taking shape.
I told him
to go upstairs and take a shower, and to be careful in the tub. The tub in his bathroom is an old cast iron
tub that we had re-lined, and it hit me that perhaps it was a little slippery,
though I didn't think so. To be safe,
though, I asked him if his tub was slippery and he replied, "Only when
there's water in it." I just stood
there staring at him and he was totally oblivious, which made it even
funnier. Then off he lumbered up the
stairs, leaving me to my laughter and my coffee.
I hurried
back downstairs to do a couple more things on the computer when I heard his
water turn off. It wasn't long before he
came slowly down the stairs and then was at the top of the stairs that come
down to where I was. I told him not to
come down those stairs..........that he didn't need to be going up and down all
these stairs with such a tremendously sore toe.
But Aaron wanted to talk, and Aaron is not easily deterred........so he
sat at the top of the stairs and carried on a conversation with me, even though
he couldn't see me. I tried to listen to
him, though only half-way at best, but he either didn't notice or he didn't
mind.....because he continued to chatter away.
Finally, as I was nearly ready to come upstairs, he began to talk about
dogs and how they see. "Mom, how
can Jackson see in color but his eyes aren't in color? Ours are white and blue. Some other dogs - their eyes are in color. How come his aren't? His are black and brown so how can he see in
color?" My goodness, the things
that come to Aaron's mind!
Later, as I
was cutting his toe nails........since the doctor would be looking at his toes,
you know.......he was busy looking at himself in the mirror. "Mom, what's that string on my
tongue?" I looked up as he opened
up his mouth and lifted up his tongue to show me the string. I'd rather talk about Jackson's eyes.
As we drove
to the air base through the rain, we heard the song that I am sure is Aaron's
theme song if there ever was an Aaron theme song..........Talk About Me. He laughs at that song, and so do I, but he
doesn't know that I have more reason to laugh at it than I am saying to
him. "I wanna talk about me, I
wanna talk about my, I wanna talk about my, me, my, my, my......." Oh yeah, the perfect Aaron song!
At last,
Aaron was sitting on the exam table and enjoying the attention that comes along
with a doctor visit........talking about my, me, my, my, my. Finally, he got to tell the story about his
toe and how it got hurt. And Aaron said,
"Well, Mom and I were watching Wheel of Fortune and I decided to show her
something in my book. I was running up
the stairs to show Mom something.........it was during Wheel of
Fortune.......and I was going to get a book..........our steps are fuzzy.........
At which
point I interrupted him, though I was enjoying this Aaron version of how he
hurt his toe, and I think the doctor was as well because he was smiling. "Aaron, it's not necessary to tell the
doctor all of this. Just tell him how
you hurt your toe."
"Well,
our steps are fuzzy and I fell on them," he explained.
That would
be carpet on the stairs, and the carpet had nothing to do with your fall,
Aaron. There followed the toe exam, and
the instructions to go down to X-ray......and then the information that the
clinic was only working half a day today, and would close at noon. But the doctor assured us they would hurry
and try to have the X-ray looked at and a decision made before we left. We got the X-ray done, with Aaron sighing
profusely in the waiting room and again on the table because now he knew that
the clinic was closing at noon.........and high noon was coming all too soon.
Back down to
the family practice waiting room we walked, and there we sat......while the
clock ticked and Aaron became ever more anxious. "It's 11:53," he flatly said. "It's OK, Aaron," I replied. "The doctor is hurrying."
"11:55,"
he murmured.
"11:57,"
he dryly said.
"11:59,"
he finally said. "Oh
well."
You would
think that the end of the world as we know it had finally occurred. Aaron was flat, defeated, and resigned to his
fate of having to leave the clinic at 12:00........ON. THE. DOT. Because that's what the doctor had
said........"We close at noon."
Oh well.
Sigh.
But lo and
behold, out scurried the doctor with the good news that Aaron's toe was not
broken but probably just sprained, and we listened to his instructions about
how to care for the injured toe before heading for the door..........after all,
it was AFTER the noon hour and we must go!!
We had a
quick and happy Burger King lunch, and then drove home through the rain/snow
mix, where Aaron got a cup of hot chocolate, and was able to take his shoes off
and rest his sore toe. He got busy on
the computer, so I also got to rest my sore ears from all his talking.
But really,
life would be pretty dull if I didn't have Aaron's talking........at least SOME
of Aaron's talking. Don't want too much
of a good thing, right?
My, me, my,
my, my..........
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