Pleasure and Pain

Our weekend has had some very lovely interludes: lazy mornings, cuddles and stories with the kids, a wonderful family splash in a salt water pool, reading time for me, sleeping in for Rob, lots of sweetness in between. But it has also been fraught with accidents. Troubling ones. The first is photo-documented below. Friday evening, we had a candlelight dinner with the kids. Lighting the candle is a "sure-fire" way to get the kids to come to the dinner table without coersion. But this time, in the after-dinner malay, Jasper told us he was going to blow out the candles on the table. Rob and I both heard him and were absent-mindedly going about house tidying up and getting things moving towards bedtime. Next thing we hear Jasper's blood-curdling screams at the table. Rob runs over and picks him up - his face is covered with candle wax, including his (closed) right eye. We take him to the bathroom and douse his face with water. We decide that I'll call 911 for a little check-in. The ambulance arrives literally one or two minutes later. And by the time they arrive, it is clear that Jasper is fine, miraculously. No visible burns at all. The medics were incredibly sweet and the kids really enjoyed the whole experience as you can see. The weekend has continued to be accident-prone, including a massive red wine spill on our white carpet. Whole bottle smashed into a million bits sort of thing. So this evening, we are almost happy to have the not-so-restful weekend behind us. Or maybe we actually need a do-over.