I was proud of K, she’d point to the sink when she wanted her Tigger cup re-filled with cool water to dip her burned hand in, she colored the “Timmy and Tina the dinosaurs go to the hospital,” coloring book, or rather, she’d hand me a crayon and point to the part she wanted various colors (Timmy was orange, but Tina was Blue.)
She didn’t like the part where her hand got bandaged, at all. She felt better when she put her un-burned hand in the cup, but she calmed way down when I sang to her. Which made me realize; all those nights I sang to her, rocked her, nursed her, and felt like a failing mother because I could not sooth my child and get her to go to sleep at an age appropriate time…were investments. That was an item on the to do list, not a space in-between. We had invested in knowing how to calm K down, and she had learned how to trust us.
When we left the ER, K waved goodbye to the nurses and technicians, the receptionists and the clerk at the billing desk. She is an extrovert, so it does come easy to her, but still, it was really cute! Just what Timmy and Tina did in the end of the coloring book.
Awwww, poor girl! :( I hope she feels better soon. Burns hurt so much!
Too right on how the things we do for kids when they are tiny teach them to trust us. They learn to love our calm voices when they are hurting and it takes so much of the hurt and fear away for them. I find that even MY scritchity-scratchity singing voice helps soothe my wee ones :P.
{{HUGS}}
This image of our “betweens” being investments will stay with me for a long time. Thank you for naming this truth.