I have come to the conclusion that my primary job responsibility as a parent of two boys is to keep them alive.

Oliver is fairly self contained.  He can entertain himself for reasonably long periods of time for a three year old.  However, it is nice to get him out of the house so I had planned to take him to story time at Barne's and Noble.  This would also provide me an opportunity to pick up my new book and get a couple for Tyler, three birds with one stone!  He was in high spirits and decided to hide behind the couch when I asked him to come get his shoe on.  I got hold of him under his arms and we were both laughing as I pulled him up.  Not for long.  He planted his feat on my hip, arched his back and pushed off, right out of my hands.  Crack!  the back of his head slammed right on the edge of the window sill and he landed on the arm chair.  Now came the screaming.  I scooped him up in my arms and knelt on the floor rocking him, my right hand cradling the back of his head.  As he started to calm down I noticed he had some raspberry jam on the back of his collar.  Now how did that get there?  That's when I felt the blood running down my arm.  Without realizing I had been putting pressure on the cut in the back of his scalp.  I got him into the bathroom (by now he was no longer crying the tough guy) and while I was debating whether this warranted a trip to Instacare or the ER the bleeding stopped. 

I called my mom.

Even if she hasn't seen it before mom can confirm my thinking, that if he's stopped bleeding almost immediately all the doctor would do is tell us to keep it clean.  He didn't lose consciousness (he really only fell a couple of feet) or demonstrate any of the symptoms of concussion (did I mention he fell off the back of a couch onto a tile floor about six months ago) so he's pretty much going to be ok.  Sometimes we just need someone else to tell us this too.

We stripped him down and rinsed the blood out of his hair in the bath tub.  Then I tricked him into looking at the floor while I poured hydrogen peroxide over it.  The cut is pretty nasty looking, about an inch long and a quarter inch wide but unless it gets infected he'll be fine.  We changed all the sheets and pillowcases and I'm not letting him play outside until it gets a good solid scab on it. 

We survived.