Ouch!!

On Sunday, after we returned from WY's ACT20 show in the afternoon, WY proceeded to do his school work after his shower. WF, too, had his shower and then began to play his Thomas & Friends engines next to the balcony's sliding glass door. R set about ironing the heap of work clothes which had grown into a mountain while I finished up the other chores.

Then, as I prepared to go for my shower, I cautioned WF, "WF, Papa is ironing the clothes in the room now. Can you please stay away from that room? Don't go near the iron because it is very, very hot and it will injure you if it drops on you. Understand?"

WF nodded and casually said, "Ok, understood."

All was fine until about 10 minutes later (as I was getting dressed). I heard WF screaming at the top of his voice and wailing away in the other toilet. The 1st thought that came to my mind was: Aiyah! What is it now? Argument over using the potty versus the toilet bowl again, is it?! (When WF is with R, WF still sometimes 'threatens' to use the potty and both he & R will still argue over it, with their argument escalating to eventually become R scolding/punishing WF - which makes me quite fed-up with both of them.)

So, the minute I got out of the shower, I yelled angrily at WF to stop his wailing! And surprisingly (I had expected him to wail even more loudly), the loud wailing stopped although I could still hear WF sobbing away.

When I went into the other toilet, I asked him what had happened and why he was wailing away. All I saw in the toilet, however, was WF standing pitifully by the half-filled wash-basin with his left arm stretched out into it. His left hand was submerged in the water. And his face was, of course, thoroughly wet with his tears.

R, who had returned to the ironing board, said simply, "He scalded his thumb touching the iron."

Huh?!?! I thought I just reminded him to stay away from the iron?! Aiyoh!!

So I checked WF's submerged hand, and the poor boy broke into loud wails as I asked 'scoldingly', "Why did you touch the iron? Didn't you stay away from the iron like I just told you only just now?!"

Then I continued (intending to make him feel even more regretful at disobeying the instructions to stay away from the iron), "Now it looks like we might need to cut off the burnt skin or even the thumb already. Or, maybe we need to slice off this part," as I pointed to the newly-formed blister on the thumb.

On hearing this, WF naturally wailed even more loudly and pleaded, "No, no, no! I don't want! I don't want to cut my thumb!! I still want my thumb! Woah......"

Sigh.

After letting him stand there with his hand stll submerged in the water for another minute or so, I let the water drain off and patted dry his hand before bringing him out of the toilet. Then I proceeded to apply some antiseptic lotion (which we universally call at home 'the yellow medicine') over the blister.

WF cried, sobbed and cried and then sobbed as I dribbled the yellow medicine carefully with a cotton-bud. WF did as he was told and in between sobs, obediently blew hard at the blister to help dry the medicine quickly. Then we got the thumb 'roughly' bandaged - just in case it gets scratched accidentally.

After that, I told him to rest on my bed as I needed to see to WY's work after I kept the medicine etc. WF quickly 'counter-offered' to wait for me by resting on WY's bed instead. I agreed.

As I checked WY's work (WY completed a Chinese composition all by himself - with some help of the 好词好句 from his Chinese tuition file - which was quite good), WF rested on WY's bed. Very soon, WF fell asleep.

The next morning, I changed the bandage after WF had changed into his CH school uniform. Then R and I placed some fresh cotton swabs and surgical tape in his school bag so that the teacher could help to change the bandage after WF's shower later in the day.

The teacher did as we requested, and all was fine. By the evening, it was no longer necessary to bandage the thumb because the blister had subsided. According to WF, it was also 'not painful anymore'.

*******************

Perhaps, it was because R had gotten WF to promptly soak his hand in water to soothe the scalded thumb immediately after the accident, the blistering was very well-managed. All the time, the blister was very 'limp' and fortunately, quite minimal. By last night, it was almost completely flat.

Just before bed last night, WF asked for a bedtime story. I offered, "I will tell you the story called Cry Wolf, ok?"

WF said, "Ok." Then he paused momentarily, and asked, "What did the Wolf touch?"

Huh??!.... Hahahahaa.......