Nosebleed

In recent months Isaac has become stoic about physical injury; in fact, I've been a little concerned about the extent to which he tries to hide his pain. Sometimes I can only tell he's been hurt if I notice something like a rising red welt. He had an enormous goose egg on his forehead a few months ago, and he steadfastly denied that he had hurt himself. He simply does not want comfort most of the time; he'd rather wait for the pain to subside on his own.

So I was surprised two nights ago when he began crying while rough-housing with his second cousin. We were at a family barbecue, and the two of them had been play-fighting on the lawn all evening long. Things got a little rough sometimes, but Isaac really seemed like he was enjoying the physicality, not to mention the attention from his cousin, who is two years older.

I hadn't seen the injury happen, but Isaac had an abrasion along the length of his nose and a bit of a nosebleed. He was very upset and couldn't control his tears, which was unusual. I originally attributed the severity of his response to the trauma of seeing his own blood.

But then he leveled a finger at one of my uncles, and accused him, in a voice that shook with sobs and rage, of hitting him with a chair.

Well, this simply wasn't true. In fact, after Isaac was less upset I did some judicious questioning, and he admitted that he had been the one lifting up the chair! What seemed to have happened was that Isaac and his cousin attacked my uncle, and in the melee someone's balance was lost and Isaac got his face banged into a chair. (Uncle Larry, Isaac would like to apologize for attempting to hit you with a chair.)

So as far as I can tell, Isaac's enormous upset was mostly emotional, due to his hurt feelings rather than his hurt nose. He honestly believed that my uncle had hit him with a chair in order to win the fight, and he was devastated to discover that an adult would do such a thing. Also he was full of what he thought was righteous anger!

Well, maybe this reversal will teach Isaac to be more careful with his sister, as he's usually the one whose rough play causes inadvertent injury to the weaker party. And maybe it will teach him that it's never a good idea to bring a weapon to a fight, because it might just get turned against you.