The Tale of Boo and His 'Amputated' Foot

My brother in law has a toy hauling, wood bottomed, flat bed trailer parked in the side drive. The kids love to play on the thing. Boo in particular loves to run around bare foot. One afternoon, I was babysitting for my sister so she and her husband could go on a date. Boo was the only kid that wanted to stay at home (hence my babysitting) and the baby had no choice but to go to dinner with mommy. Boo went outside to play, and, despite my many many warnings about playing bare foot on the trailer, continued to play on the thing until he got a big ol' mother of a sliver in his foot. It was HUGE!!! And so deep. I couldn't get the thing out and when his parents got home, they couldn't do anything for it either.

Now, when you grow up farm kid, you're used to 'walking it off' or being the recipient of some kind of minor home style surgical procedure of sorts. This was Boo's first venture into this realm although he is not so lucky as to be growing up farm kid. So, his dad began trying to cautiously dig out the ginormous splinter from Boo's foot, but Boo wanted nothing to do with his home-style surgical procedure and took to screaming bloody murder.

What does one do in a case like this? Call your handy dandy neighborhood nurse for a home visit. While we were waiting for the nurse to offer assistance of any sort, I took the opportunity to help calm Boo in my inimitable style. While he ate his ice cream, I told him exactly what was going to happen. I said, "Ok Boo. Here's what's going to happen. First, we're going to remove your foot because that's the best way to remove a splinter of this size. Once we remove the splinter, we'll clean your foot, and then reattach it with super glue. When we're all done, you won't even be able to tell where we removed your foot." His response? "Okay."

So the nurse arrives and Boo takes to screaming bloody murder again at the sight of the nurse. So, my sister and I are trying to cal Boo while his dad is trying to keep him still while the nurse deftly works to remove the sliver. All of a sudden Boo leans forward and very seriously asks, "Did you take my foot off yet?"

I tell you what, I had some serious 'splaining to do for that one! And to make it even better, the next day, he's walking around with his bandaged foot and a little neighbor friend asked him what happened to his foot, and Boo proudly announces, "I got a splinter so they had to take offmy foot and put it back on."

I love being an aunt!