Yesterday afternoon, I was just getting set to leave from work, and my wife called. I could hear my 4 year old son crying very loudly in the background as my wife asked if I was on my way home yet. She told me that he had injured his finger pretty badly on his bike somehow, and wanted me to meet her at the emergency room. I wasn't sure if insurance would cover the one we wanted to go to, so I had to call my agency to find out if it would and call her back (it did, so we were okay).

It sounded like he had really injured the tip of his pinkie. While on the way there, she told me that she had put a washcloth over the finger, but when she had pulled it off to look at it, she had seen something come off of the tip. She wasn't sure if it was just skin or if it was more, but he wouldn't let her keep the washcloth off long enough to see (plus, she was too squeamish to look for too long). She asked if she could call an ambulance, but I said no way. When I was doing my ER stint while I was getting my EMT-B, AMR brought in a kid who had sliced his finger, and the paramedics had made a comment about how there was no way that required an ambulance. Plus, as an EMT and firefighter, I've taken waaaay too many people to the ER who didn't need an ambulance, and I knew one wasn't needed this time.

I am not a pet person. I never have been, and I never will be. My wife, on the other hand, loves pets, cats in particular. She works for a vet clinic, so she gets to be around them all the time. She had three cats when we got married. Never having lived with cats before, I was not aware of the havoc they would wreak in my life once we got married and I had to share an apartment with them. For instance, one of them was a cranky old witch who shed white hair all over the place and howled at you and scratched you (or at least tried - she had no claws any more) when you just walked by her.

One thing that my wife and I have always been very careful to do is to separate the person from the job. What I mean by that is when one of my kids do something well, whether it is one of their assigned jobs or coloring a picture, we tell them "good job" instead of "good boy" or "good girl". This way, their worth is not tied to the job they do. Saying "good boy" may be fine when they do a good job, but what about the time where they do a bad job (and we all do that)? Does that mean they are a bad boy or bad girl? Not at all.

I have two children - a girl, age 7 and a boy, age 4 - and one of the things I try to do is reinforce good things about them so they have a good self image. For instance, one of the things I will do is out of the blue say "You're cute" to them when I pass them in the hall, or we are just sitting in the kitchen or living room together, or any other randon situation when I'm with them. I know they like it by the smile on their face when I say it. I know it's getting through and I'm setting a good example when, on their own, they say the same thing to me, or even better, they say it to each other (during those times when they aren't fighting with each other).