Vacation Accidents

I haven't been able to post lately but there are tons of things to post about, so I'll start with what I think will yield the shortest post so I can get going.

I can't recall a vacation period with so many accidents in years and years... First, there was the mirror accident (or perhaps more adequately, incident), which could have been much more serious but which was not, and which in the end cost us only 100 dollars.

Then, something else happened while we were at the beach two weeks ago, this time with Kelvin, our almost 4 years old son. In one of the afternoons, the women in our family (my MIL, DH's grandma, my two SIL and I) drove to a town 2 hours away where there are several clothing factories and factory outlets to shop. DH stayed with both boys, and my BIL stayed with my nephew. Everything was going well until dad decided it was a good idea to take both boys to a playground to keep them entertained until we got home. The boys were having fun at the see-saw (the old fashioned kind, which I have never seen in the US since I started going to playgrounds, the one that goes all the way down and not only leans on a huge spring/coil). DH was holding Linton, who's only 17 months old, while Kelvin was holding on by himself. Then Kelvin didn't want to go anymore, and climbed down and started "helping" daddy to lower down his brother. Linton was enjoying it much more when the see-saw went down really fast, so DH started to do it faster, and, accidentally, the wooden see-saw hit Kelvin's front teeth when it was coming up. I can't imagine how poor DH dealt with two screaming boys, one bleeding profusely, but he managed. He washed up Kelvin, put both boys in the car, and drove to the nearest dentist (Linton screamed all the while, and only calmed down later, at the dentist's office). The dentist cleaned up Kelvin's mouth, prescribed a pain-killer/anti-inflammatory, and asked him to come back the next day for an X-ray. Of course I was heart-broken when I got home, especially when DH told me that Kelvin was very sad when it happened because he was just helping daddy, and not doing anything wrong. The end results? One, and probably both of his front teeth "died" (one already changed color), and he'll probably need a root canal in each of them not to compromise the permanent tooth behind them, can you believe it? Too bad this can't be done here because his teeth are still too 'soft'... this may end up being the costliest and hardest to solve accident of all.

The third one happened yesterday and not here in Brazil (that's why I didn't use that in the title). DH is in France participating of a winter course in his area of specialization. He was looking forward to skiing there, but he won't be able to. Yesterday as he walked to the ski station to ask about prices he slipped and fell in the ice fracturing his left arm... (This is a guy whose only fracture in life was a foot in his 7th grade, and only because his school bus driver made a sudden curve and he kicked the seat in front of him too hard). I felt very frustrated because he won't be able to ski, and even more because he'll have to write shorter emails :) The cost of this one? Apparently 150 Euros, thanks to the socialized health system in France (oh, yeah, I could go on and on about of how terrible I think the American health system is...).

Anyway... the hardest part for me is the realization that as far as the kids are concerned, this is only the beginning. I know I have to brace myself for much more serious accidents; they're an intrinsic part of childhood (and sometimes even adulthood... :)

Edited to add:
1. You may have noticed I’m a bit worried about money. It’s just that we’re on such a tight budget that any unexpected expense, however small, worries me.
2. Did I mention we were on vacation? Vacation my foot! There's no vacation when you have two young children. My husband and I were talking that in this situation it's best to vacation at home, but this subject is another post in itself.