The Misadventure with the Door

When we first learned we were having a boy, almost everyone who already had a boy told us to beware of two things: extreme energy and frequent bumps and bruises (due to extreme energy). We witnessed his seemingly endless energy supply starting his first week of life (would he EVER go to sleep?!), but we didn't expect to see the bumps and bruises till he was a full-blown toddler.

Wrong.

On Friday, Ronan closed his bedroom door on his poor little thumb and just about everyone who knows and loves him had a mini-heart attack. We still can't believe this happened to him. So for those of you out there with little ones, read on so you can avert this! It all started with Ronan's complete fascination with doors, at about 9 months. He loves swinging them, opening them, wiggling his fingers underneath them, playing peekaboo with whomever happens to be on the other side... He just adores them. As he got stronger and smarter he figured out how to push the doors closed, hard. He'd race down the hallway, close a door, and then sit there on the other side and laugh and laugh! Hmmm, we thought. It's cute now, but seems a little risky. What if the door is accidentally locked? What if he hurts himself on the other side? What if he closes the door ON HIS FINGERS? So we got a bunch of the foam door guards that prevent the door from closing all the way, and let him have his fun. Alas, we're not the smartest of parents, and we didn't realize that fingers can get pinched on the hinge side of the door too.... So on Friday when Ronan was pulling his door closed he stuck his right thumb into the hinge and in a flash the door pinched his thumb. Aaack!! A new parent's (or any parent's) worst nightmare! Grandma Kathy did immediate triage to stop the bleeding, and I called Matt from my office in Berkeley to tell him to get over to the house ASAP. Papa Christian rushed home early from work. We are SO thankful for everyone's help. And we're so relieved that the thumb wasn't broken. The door pinched off a small chunk of the fleshy part of his tiny, tiny thumb -- a deep gash -- and though it bled a lot, it was easily bandaged. The only tricky thing was the fact that Ronan sucks his right thumb so in order for him not to chew off the bandage we stuck his arm in a sock and wrapped tape tightly around his little wrist!

Babies heal quickly, we have learned. After two days with a sock hand, he's back to sucking his barely healed thumb, happy as a clam. And we've learned our lesson! Foam guards on the side and top of the door... or simply keeping the doors closed all the time.


Ronan doing the splits and playing the piano with his non-sock-covered hand. A talented guy.


All better! Whew! Thanks, Grandma and Dr. Matt!

I'll close this President's Day weekend post with a top 10, since I love looking back on these lists!

Ronan's Top 10 Favorite Things to Do at 10 Months 3 Weeks:

1) Crawl... everywhere... fast
2) Screech and squeal at the top of his lungs
3) Play with Daddy
4) Eat barley
5) Eat the remote
6) Slap windows and laugh
7) Play with doors (ahem)
8) Investigate every appliance in reach in the kitchen
9) Eat books
10) Sleep (He slept a record 14 hours straight last night! Yikes. It was mostly b/c Mom and Dad slept way past his usual 6:30 wake-up time. He's down to two naps a day totaling ~3 hrs. A li'l man after my own heart!)