Back in the E-E-E-R ...you don't know how unlucky you are, Boy

5:00 pm Boy attempts jump from tiger chair in living room, hits right temple on unknown toy or piece of furniture, comes into the kitchen, crying with half of his face smeared with blood.

5:05 pm Crying has stopped, until Boy sees his palms are covered in dried blood and he has a fit until they are wiped down with baby wipes. One paper towel is soaked in blood getting the very small laceration under control.

5:10 pm Call goes out to Father of Boy to come home to be with Oldest Child, who does not want an adventure to the ER. Father proposes alternatives such as meeting us at the ER which are rejected by Management as too much drama for the ER waiting room.

5:25 pm Boy and Management leave for University Medical Center at Princeton, which is close to us (at least until 2011 when it moves to a new building across Route 1), chanting, "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, 'No more Micah's jumping off the chair'. . ."

5:35 pm We sign into Triage and go into the waiting area. Micah promptly finds the kids' area and is playing there when the unit secretary comes to slap on an identification bracelet. Since she neglected to push up his coat sleeve he pretty much can take it on and off at will.

5:45 pm The triage nurse does her thing and walks us over to the Fast Track, where we sit and vegetate for awhile until the doctor sees us, then the physician assistant sees us and essentially does the exact same assessment that the doctor did. Then we vegetate some more while the tech assembles the papoose board and all the other supplies for suturing.

6:00 pm Boy is strapped down and is beginning to get the notion that the party to fix his boo-boo isn't going to be a barrel of laughs, especially after the PA starts numbing up the laceration. That stuff burns and no one seems to mix 1 mL of bicarb into the anesthetic to adjust the pH to something more physiologically neutral.

6:02 pm PA starts suturing. The last time he got about five or more minutes for the anesthetic to take effect. Other than that she is remarkably cool about suturing a howling child.

6:20 pm Boy is released from the papoose board and immediately stops crying.

6:30 pm We get our discharge instructions and head for the car.

Five days until the sutures can come out. He got Thomas the Tank Engine stickers and seems no worse for the wear. I wish I could say the same for me.