Gok Gok

Two days ago, Calder tripped when he was alighting from the school bus. First I saw his haversack flying to the ground. Then I saw him tumbling onto the asphalt.

"Ahahaha! Gok gok!" He wailed tearlessly. "Ooh dear ooh dear!" I joined him, "It's ok - Mommy will clean clean." At the back of my mind, I was thinking: Uh oh. Is he going to melt down?

Though distraught, he followed me up the flat and into the bathroom and watched as I sprayed water to clean his knee. By then, blood was oozing from the scrapes.

"Mommy put cream cream," I narrated as I applied antiseptic using a cotton bud, "Ooh dear. Calder fell down and it's so painful!" I blew gently on his knee.

The next thing I thought of is: Can he go bowling in this state? (He learns bowling with Special Olympics every Tuesday afternoon.) Probably not. And no swimming tomorrow either (he has swimming CCA in school every Wednesday). Uh oh. Is he going to get upset for missing these favourite activities?

I explained, "Calder, gok gok so no bowling. And cannot swim tomorrow because it'll be painful in the water."

So he spent the afternoon sitting on the sofa watching TV, listening to music. Good thing he could still practise piano - another of his favourite thing to do.

I waited till end of the day, when the wound is dryer, to bathe him. "What happened, Calder?" I asked when he grimaced. "Gok gok!" So the wound was smarting under the running water. When I tried to reapply the antiseptic cream, he held onto my hands to keep me from touching his knee.

"Calder, do you want to swim tomorrow?" I ventured.

"No!"

For your information, Calder replies "yeh" to almost anything.

The next day, when I stopped him from blowing at my face (his new idea of play), he put up his leg and blew at his injured knee instead. And giggled.

I'm so thankful that Calder did not melt down during the episode. Though painful, this is also a precious experience for the meaningful interaction that ensued.