Be glad your child has a voice!!!

The older Little Man gets, the more irritated I sometimes get when I hear people complaining about how their child is "constantly whining." Let's compare whining. Mine whines as in, "eeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhh" not whining as in, "Mom, she hit me" or, "but I don't wanna eat peas!!!" in a whiny voice.

Last night at some time between 1 & 1:30 am I heard Little Man whining and thought to myself, "already? seriously?" He's usually only up for 2 reasons; he either heard the train which scares him silly or he needs to go potty. So I got up to find him making his way to our room and I picked him up. It sounded like he said, "ba-ba" which is his word for Oma. That kinda made sense because we'd seen them earlier in the day and I know he enjoys playing with Diva over there. But to be sure I asked again, "what?"

That's when I realized he said "bo-bo" which is his word for a boo boo or an owie...whatever your choice word happens to be. I asked where and it seemed like he pointed to his eye. Granted it was pitch black in our room but I didn't see anything and it didn't make sense so I told him, "say bye bye bo-bo" to which he repeated it. I asked if it was gone and he confirmed it was. Great. That meant it really wasn't anything.

As I carried him towards his room I asked him if he needed to potty to which he replied, "mo." I informed him I wasn't going to make it if I didn't make a stop so I did. Of course as soon as I set him down he begins the potty dance so I get him up there, he goes and it seems like everything is fine.

As I put him down on his bed he completely freaks out again. I was trying to lay down next to him but he wouldn't lay down. Keep in mind it's insanely dark and my eyes aren't quite adjusted yet. As he turns to face me I suddenly realize there is blood all over his mouth. I can only see the shadows of it but it's pretty obvious as to what it is. I shockingly blurted out, "Oh my God! What the Hell?!"

I took him into the bathroom and stood him on the counter so I could see his mouth and of course it was covered in blood. I whisked him into the living room for a better place to put him and some wipes to start cleaning him up. Check the nose, nope not coming from there. I couldn't figure out where the blood was coming from but it appears it's not bleeding anymore at least.

Of course I ask him all of the routine questions, "What happened? How did you get your bo-bo? Did you hit your mouth? Did you bite your mouth? Did you bite your tongue?" Pretty much everything gets a routine, "yeah" out of him at this point. Great. You've got blood all over your face, hand, clothes & bed and I can't figure out exactly where it came from. Once we got him all cleaned up I just held him. We'd made enough noise (Hubby was up by that point too) that Peanut was awake and irritated at us for waking him, lol. Hubby took care of him and he went back to sleep pretty quickly at least.

I continued to talk to him & hold him. As I was getting ready to take him back to his bed Hubby tossed me Little Man's pacifier. Ah-ha! Great idea!! If it's one of his lips or front teeth, he's not going to be willing to suck on the pacifier which would make it hurt worse. Besides, it was one of those moments where he just needed to soothe himself. He rarely gets it. Sometimes at night when he's chewing through his fingers we'll give it to him to save his fingers but he rarely gets that thing, even though he LOVES it. He went to town on that thing immediately, which we hoped meant it we'd at least ruled out a few possibilities of where the blood had come from.

He took a little longer to fall back asleep this time but he did. I just laid at the end of his bed until he finally closed his little eyes. I felt so bad for him. He was trying so hard to tell us what had happened and there was just no way for us to understand what he was saying and he answered "yeah" to pretty much everything. Unfortunately that wasn't very helpful.

Fast Forward to this morning. I asked him if he had any bo-bos and he said no. Although he later changed his mind and as complained about his mouth several times today. He clearly has a wound of some sort extending from the top lip almost up to the bottom of the nose. I have NO earthly clues as to what happened, how, where, when, etc.

We've tried coaxing him this morning, "how'd you get your bo-bo? Can you show mommy/daddy what happened?" We've tried it all but still have no answers.

I am SO frustrated that when my child has an illness or an accident or just prefers a peanut butter sandwich to a grilled cheese that he cannot tell me. Everything is 'yes/no' questions with him and it's just frustrating and heartbreaking. It's not supposed to be like this. I have plenty of other stories but it doesn't matter. The end result is the same and I'm just ready for my son to be on equal footing with every other 3 yo out there.

Next time your child is in a whiny mood try being thankful that they have a voice instead of irritated that they are using it.