Hard Times for the Boy

The big AC/DC fan with his new t-shirt

It's been a tough week for James. It all started on Thursday of the week before last with him receiving his vaccinations in school after which his arm swelled up from shoulder to elbow for a week. They also seemed to leave him feeling sensitive and in bad humour for days. Then last weekend he got lost, or separated from us temporarily while we were at the market in the People's Park in Dun Laoghaire. Luckily we go there most weekends and while there are lots of people around, it's small and he knows it very well. It didn't take long for park wardens and one of his teachers to find him (or he found them). I can't get a straight story out of him. He stares at me blankly when I ask him for the sequence of events that afternoon. Funnily enough he wasn't as upset about it as I thought he might be.

James in the People's Park with Paddy the week before he got lost

However he got very upset on Thursday when he got a bad gash above his lip at his after-school care. Apparently the boys were all running around inside. James stopped (suddenly I am sure) and a boy went crashing into him knocking him to the floor and landing on top of him. James face managed to land just past the carpet on the wooden floor. He got a deep gash under his nose/above his lip. Thank God I wasn't there because there was lots of blood. I left work and brought him to the hospital (it was our first real hospital excursion). The poor boy was weak with fear of the hospital not to mention loss of blood. When we arrived the nurse said he would probably need stitches which nearly sent him over the edge but luckily the doctor thought glue would do the trick. He was delighted when it was all over and to top it off on the way out of the hospital we met a friend from his class who had also got a bad gash on his head from a falling branch. This was quite an exciting end to the whole experience. The two boys exchanged their war stories.

This is about five hours after the accident when we were home from the hospital. The swelling had reduced a good bit by then but as you can see, he was still quite swollen and bleeding.

The recent good news about James is that he is loving learning his letters at school. He is noticing letters and words all around him every day that he can read and I think he feels liberated by this. He also loves practicing writing his letters. This week out of nowhere he produced two Easter cards for us that he wrote in himself without asking for anyone's help. They said "I luv y rina" and "I luv y dad" including dad's "number" on his card.


James has also been to his first proper birthday party. I had to stay with him the whole time and it took him a while to get settled in as it was a girl's party and there were 16 girls running around dancing and playing party games. He did enjoy himself at the party and since then he has started to understand that kids get left at other kids houses to play without their Mammy. So today for the first time he let me leave him at his friends house for a play date. Yay James!