Pharra

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

New Year's Day Adventure

On New Year's Day my 3 daughters, baby boy and I hit a local public forest and traversed its unpleasantly frequented depths.

Lupita is 5'2", 117 lbs at 10 years old. You've seen her pictures on teh interwebs, and they are up to date (if not, make with the clickies, she's a cute kid). She is my Tiger.

I bought her a real, authentic Swiss Army Knife for Christmas and she took her first opportunity to use it (we were following a creek in the forest) to find out just how sharp Swiss Army Knives are and lanced her thumb. She didn't cry, she just said "Ow!" and then looked at me, and I could see this wave of shame wash over her face, and then she cried, not for the pain, but because she felt she'd done a bad job: I had trusted her with the knife. Mistakenly, she thought I didn't think this would happen.

I told her, "I knew that was going to happen." "You did?" "Of course. I had knives explained to me but it only made sense after I cut myself with them. Trust me, it's not a mistake you make often after the first time."

I hadn't, however, thought to pack bandages, antibiotic cream or anything else I used to take with me on horseback rides other than lots and lots of water. So I cut my undershirt and made a bandage and wrapped her thumb well.

So we hurried back; I had all of my kids with me. Alejandrita (alay-hon-dree-ta), my 5yo daughter, waited to trip until we were out of the forest and on the paved sidewalk, and Dulce Maria ("Sweet" Maria), my 8yo daughter, went down with her as they were holding hands. They screamed. Alay had a skinned elbow and Dulce a skinned knee. So I cut my shirt up some more after licking the wounds clean.

We came back home (this was all on New Year's Day) and Maria Alejandra, my lovely Latina, was much amused. Everyone but the two boys (myself and my son) were hurt.

Lupita also noticed that Jose Francisco found his younger two sisters' reactions perplexing. She caught the look on his face, he peered at their wounds, and then looked at Maria's thumb, which had bled a bit through the impromptu wrapping.

I put powdered vitamin C on Lupe's cut, which BURNED, but worked great. It was much better this morning. Dulce was terrified of it, so Maria applied neosporin.

So it was a good day. Life is not complete without crying daughters.