Movie Night
(or Cabbage Patch Trauma Night)

K is out tonight with his boyfriend. I thought it would be a lovely idea to take the little people to a movie. I figured we could catch the last matinee of Shrek 2 before we came home to make dinner. It was kind of a last minute thing that was decided during a phone conversation with K a little after 4 pm. The last matinee was at 4:45 pm so I cleaned up the kids and myself quickly then out the door we go.

We were barely out the door before Cabbage Patch starts WHINING. She has this LOVELY habit of whining whenever she has to walk anywhere. Usually she reserves it for the walk home but occasionally (like tonight) I get a special treat of whining on the way to our destination as well as the way home. Since Cabbage Patch just turned 3 she still falls a lot when she walks or runs or stands. Super Girl was much worse about the falling, her poor little knees and shins were constantly covered in scrapes and scabs. At 5 she seems to have outgrown that for the most part. Now it’s Cabbage Patch’s turn. The other day as we were walking across the parking lot to get into the car she falls and scrapes her knee. She’s fine. It makes a nasty looking scrape that gets an ugly scab on it, but she’s fine otherwise.

Tonight as we stepped foot in the parking lot of the movie theater she falls. On that knee. And bloodies it. Not just a little drop of blood or even a little trickle, but a freaking faucet of blood down her tiny little leg. I wipe the blood off her leg in hopes that the one river down her leg would be it, but I was wrong. I wipe about 4 streams off her leg before it starts to slow a bit. As I had nothing to wipe my hand on, I wiped it on the cement (I was careful not to touch her boo-boo with my now dirty hand from that point on).

We walk around the building to buy tickets and as we are standing in line I see a slow stream of blood has reached the front edge of her shoe. Sigh I get the tickets and we stand in line to get popcorn. I grab napkins to clean her leg up as we wait then put a piece of napkin over her bloody boo-boo to keep it somewhat protected.

Fast forward to after the movie and back home (yes she did whine all the way home). I discover that some Tiny Terrorist have absconded with the first aid kit. After some threats Super Girl locates the kit which now only holds three band aids and some empty wrappers (she’s off to bed early because of that). Grrr…

I get the peroxide to clean Cabbage Patch’s boo-boo as I now realize that the napkin was a bad choice of items to put on her boo-boo since I now have to somehow get it off and not further traumatize her. A few capfuls of peroxide later I decide a nice bath will work better as she’s starting to get a petrified look on her face. The bath is non-traumatic and enjoyable for her. She’s got a band-aid and Neosporin on her boo-boo (the one on her toe also – blister from her sandal) and she’s fallen asleep on the sofa while watching Wallace and Gromit. It’s so damn cute I may need insulin.