Nalaville Chronicles: The Summer of the Perpetually Skinned Knees and How a Chicken Can Help

Abraham has skinned his knees about 4 times already this summer. Each instance is quite the ordeal and happens just as the scabs from the last scrape are almost gone. Of anything painful that ever happens to him, the skinned knee makes him cry the loudest and longest.

Today, as Abraham and I were on our way to the park, he fell and skinned his left knee--badly enough to draw blood yet again. I sat down on the walk and just held him and comforted him for about a minute, but he was still crying quite loudly.

The resident of the house nearest where the accident occurred poked her head out from behind her privacy fence and asked if her barking dog had scared him. I said no and that he just skinned his knee. She was glad the crying fit wasn't a result of her barking canine and retreated back inside of her fence.

Immediately after her departure, I changed my strategy. He was hurt, but probably mostly needed to be distracted at this point. So, I started talking about the park and the slides and swings. I talked about how it was a beautiful day and the sun was shining, etc.--all while attempting to put him in the stoller, which he decided was a horrible idea. We were then left to stand on the sidewalk as he didn't want to walk either. My pregnant body can only carry him for so long, so I just held him as I decided if we should go home or to the park.

I had just decided to head home (3 or 4 minutes into his crying) and turned around only to see another resident of the block coming towards us in her pajamas. As she got closer I saw that she was holding, of all things, a chicken!! She said, "I think someone needs a distraction." And held the chicken out for Abraham to pet. He immediately stopped crying. I said, "Abraham, its a chicken!" The friendly woman then introduced the chicken as Babette. "Babette, the chicken," I said to Abraham. He smiled and reached out to pet the bird.

As quickly as she came, the friendly chicken-bearing pajamaed neighbor disappeared back to her house. Abraham was completely in awe and definitely not crying anymore. I was able to set him in the stroller and we talked about chickens the whole way to the park, where we had a lovely time playing on the slide!