Slice and dice = "Not nice!"

Oooooh, I'm pissed.

Yesterday, I was at work reveling in the peace and quiet when I recieved a phone call from Sprite's daycare. I was told in very generic terms that "it's not an emergency, but..."

Turns out, some kids were playing in the corner of the room while they were getting ready for nap time and Sprite was one of the kids in this group. One of the teachers then heard Sprite start to cry. The teacher came over and saw that Sprite's face was "a little" scratched up. One of the boys in her class got a little grabby, Sprite got defensive (that's my girl!), and scuffling ensued. But, the scratches were not why they were calling me.

"Well, she has a small cut near (all right, pay attention here, the word near is going to get very vague) the corner of her right eye...." I immediately grabbed my keys. "Okay, small cut, is she bleeding?" "Errr...(Woman, spit it out!) she was. We would like you to come over if you have the time to take a look."

I luckily work about 5 minutes away so I went over, a little wary of what I might see. Was I going to see a couple of pink lines or deep gouges? Sprite had fallen asleep, and the teachers didn't want to wake her. I mentally gave them the finger as I ignored their advice and scooped the sleeping Sprite into my arms. She opened her eyes, glared at me sleepily, (yeah, she gets that from me too) and settled back down. I inspected her face and saw a prominent scratch on her nose, a couple on her chin, one on her cheek, and a pink line at the corner of her right eye. Basically, it looked like she got into it with a cat.

Then one of teachers came over and broke down the scene as it occured. "When I heard Sprite cry, I came over to see what happened. And her right eye was filled with blood and I freaked out!" (Uh, what?!) She continued. "So, we got her to open her eyes more and we saw a small cut on her bottom eyelid, but her eye is fine." (yes, because luckily, this teacher is almost done with her degree in optimology.....sense the sarcasm here?)

I was filled with conflicting thoughts. When did the word near become synonomous with on? Should I take Sprite to an eye doctor to check it out? Should I wait to see if anything appears wrong later? Should I find little Eddie Scissorhands and go all Mommy Dearest on him? My poor little girl's perfect face is now marred (albiet temporarily) and this little monster is sleeping peacefully near by. Revenge must be had. Uppence must come. And it must involve Elmo for the sheer irony of it all....

No, I suppressed my inner rage and let the sleeping Sprite snuggle back down as I instructed them to keep a good eye on her (a better eye than they were used to) for the rest of the day and let me know if anything seemed wrong. She was acting fine when I picked her up and easily saw the milk cup waiting for her in the van so her eyes are fine (in fact, a little TOO good, this kid misses nothing!).

Now, I did find out that the pint-sized punk is a repeat offender. I saw a little boy on my way out with Sprite whose face looked worse than hers and his father's reaction to seeing it for the first time. (And they thought I reacted strongly?)

Of course, all parents were gently reminded to trim their kids' nails in a timely manner to prevent "mishaps" like this from occurring. (quite political, eh?)

I was good when I saw the tiny terror enter the classroom this morning and Sprite's natural reaction to seeing him. "Not nice!" she said, pointing. His mother looked a little chagrined, almost as if she'd been warned about it before... But I smiled at her as I bid her good morning (and silently wished a small bout of diarrhea on her son) and went on my merry way to work.

Comments

[Alison]

That is so scary. I hope Sprite is feeling better. Glad she can stick up for herself.