Boys Are Wild Things Indeed

Authors Stephen James and David Thomas begin their book Wild Things: the Art of Nurturing Boys by describing the wildness and imagination of boys, specifically how Stephen's twin 3 year old boys in seconds, upon him leaving the bathroom where they were bathing, engaged in a "no-holds-barred wrestling match. Water and bubbles were everywhere" (3). This is the reality that Dan and I now live with. The 'in an instant' crisis and/or threat of physical harm to, or more appropriately, by our sons.

For example, this past Sunday I was volunteering in the church nursery - toddlers' side. There were maybe 25 children, all walkers. Some toddling more than others. To match, there were maybe 7 volunteers. Julian was clingy at first, but eventually moved from me to the toys, mats, and play house areas. Halfway through the service, I left his side to change a little girl's diaper. The nano-second I do, I hear his scream. I turn and see that he is no longer in the little play house, but now rather lying outside of it under it's window. I reason that the only thing that could have placed him there so quickly would have been a face dive out of the window onto the floor.

The team leader was closest to him, picked him up and brought him to me. I tried to look at his face and upper body to see if there were any cuts or obvious injuries. He didn't seem to be bleeding - yet. But with each cry that came in between his panics and breaths blood started to spurt out - right onto my face. Splattered. It was now a war zone and I was the medic. People brought me towels - wet and dry. They brought ice. I think at some point I must have put the little girl down. For the next half hour it was all about comforting, cleaning up, and trying to get the ice pack close to his nose and forehead area.

He eventually calmed down and even tried to ice his hair and head by himself. I asked him to ice his eyes where the swelling by the nose was, but he didn't like that as much as his hair. But he was fine - he even went back into the play house and moved toward the windows with the intent of jumping out again. Needless to say, I didn't allow him too. The rest of the day my blood pressure, was in recovery mode; the rest of the day felt like I was recovering from running a race.

Praying for God's mercy in bringing up these boys!