Unintended Harm

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Whitney. It does a good job of depicting just how innocent and sweet she is, but I have a very real warning to relay in this post. Even though my beautiful little girl is sweet and innocent, she's getting strong enough that she can unintentionally cause some very real harm.

Last week, Melanie decided to forgo the little plastic flossing tool to better floss Whitney's back teeth before bed. We're not exactly sure what happened next, but Whitney got very scared or angry and bit down on Melanie's finger. It must have been some kind of reflex, because she bit down very hard and she wasn't in control enough to let go. Melanie shouted in pain and Whitney got even more agitated. After a few seconds, that seemed much longer, Melanie used her other hand to pry Whitney's mouth open and pull her finger out. It was bleeding and pretty sore.

I've got to hand it to Melanie, she had the presence of mind to comfort Whitney, who didn't intend to hurt her. Had it been me, I don't know if I'd have been able to hold my temper. I hope so.

Melanie also did her best to help Whitney understand what had just happened and that she had hurt Mommy. She was able to calm Whitney down and get her to go to bed.

Since then, Melanie's finger has healed and things have returned to normal. But this experience was a good reminder to us. Sometimes Whitney just doesn't realize the consequences of her actions. We're definitely back to the plastic, fun flosser tools at bed time and we're going to try harder to teach our little girl that what she does affects others. We want to do everything possible to keep Whit from hurting herself and those around her, especially when she doesn't mean to.