Mama Bear

Yesterday I wanted to inflict pain on a child. Me! Pain on a child! I was almost embarassed that I felt that way. I mean who wants to hurt a child? Yep, I did. Why?

Cause that child BIT my little bear! My mama bear instinct kicked into overdrive and I just wanted to hurt him!

I was busy all day at work, then had a great workout before sitting at my desk and realizing I had forgott William had a 3:00 dr appointment. It was 2:30 when it ocurred to me, and usually I need about 45 minutes to get him and get there - so I had to hurry. When I got to Goddard he was happily playing, but even more happy to see me. He ran up to give me a hug and he held a little tighter than normal, but I certainly wasn't going to question why. He held onto my neck as he rested his sweet little head on my shoulder and wouldn't let me go.

I was trying to gather his things when the teacher came by and held up an "incident report". I've gotten these before - always thought thye were kind of silly. "William bumped his head today" or "William scratched his knee" - ok really? it happens. They seem a bit dramatic.

But not this one. It says "William was bit today on the right shoulder" then "right" was crossed out and "left" was written, and I really wanted to correct their grammar. The teacher explained that a boy was playing with a toy, William and one other boy both tried to grab it so the first boy leaned over and bit him.

AND BIT HIM HARD! Oh my gosh his shoulder looks like the picture of the abused boy from Kindergarten Cop. Do you remember that boy? And how your face curled up and cringed when they pulled his shirt back to reveal his bruises? THAT'S HOW WILLIAM LOOKS! My heart both broke and filled with rage in an instant.

But, the good news here is that he is ok. And while I wished I could have been there to protect him, I reminded myself of the scene from Finding Nemo when Dory (the best character of all) says to Marlin, after he's declared he promised to never let anything happen to Nemo, "Well that's silly. you can't never let anything happen to him, then nothing would happen to him". I know I can't protect him from everything...but I sure wanted to get that kid!!!

Many of you will be wondering what Austin's initial response was, and it was nothing less than you'd expect: That's it. When I'm home on R&R I'm teaching William to fight, and I'm kicking that kid's dad's ass. He won't - I mean he may want to, but he won't. But he sure was mad!!!