Just after school started back up again, I got a call from Alexandra’s teacher. She wanted to tell me what had happened in Kindergarten that morning. They had been moving the tables and benches together for snack time, and one of the tables got set down on Alexandra’s toe. Frau Meier said that Alexandra looked like she was in pain, but didn’t cry. She asked her if she was okay, and Alexandra just nodded her head. But the teacher felt bad and wanted to let me know she may have gotten hurt.
When Alexandra walked in the door at lunchtime and saw me, she immediately burst into tears. She had been holding it in the whole time. She cried and cried and didn’t stop, so after about an hour, I called the doctor. He told us to come right over. And the x-rays revealed a little crack in one of her tiny toe bones. 🙁 He wrapped it very gently and then gave her the best news of her life. No P.E. for the next little while, and minimal walking. You should have seen her giant grin, she hates P.E. Well, she hates the getting changed in a big group in the same room part, so now she had official reprieve from it all.
The kids were very sweet and helped me take good care of the invalid. They brought her books and toys, pushed her around the house on Sophie’s wheeled desk chair, and made sure no one accidentally stepped on her toes at school. I drove her to school and picked her up for the next few days, as she wasn’t supposed to walk on it. And then after the weekend, she decided she could walk if she had on comfortable shoes. The kids organized it amongst themselves that two would walk with Alexandra to help her, and the other one would run ahead and make sure the school bus waited for her. They can fight like hornets, but sometimes they can be so sweet!
She didn’t like me to touch her toe, and she certainly didn’t want to look at it, so we just left it alone for a bit. When the doctor gave the okay, I removed the tape, but Alexandra still didn’t want to look at her toe. Too afraid of what she might see, I guess. It was a long healing process. The damaged nail took a long time to fall off, and the new one grew back very slowly. It still isn’t all the way there. Every time someone accidentally bumped it, she would cry out, although I am not sure if that was due to actual pain, or just being scared it might hurt.
So now just Sophie needs to break a bone and all the kids will have experienced this rite of passage. I still have never broken anything, so maybe she will be like me. 🙂