After worrying all weekend about Mason running into the stove in the middle of the room at the cabin, but being reassured of his hyper-awareness of the "hot hot hot" danger, I decided to turn on the fireplace last night. Immediately he channeled Smokey-The-Bear to let us all know that it is, indeed, "hot hot hot."

Fast forward about 45 minutes to 8:30. Grammy and Grampy were over, Kenzie and Mason were playing. He was pulling a blanket over his shoulder and had his head turned, right hand extended, and walked square into the fireplace. Worse yet, he didn't immediately remove his hand but just stood there and screamed until I dove across the room to grab him. He got "at least 2nd and probably 3rd degree burns" on his palm and up his little arm. It was a miserable night for him. Grammy found him some peace by letting him splash in a bowl of cold water while I called the doctor on call. They said that he needed to be seen immediately. I called Children's and Harborview's ER to learn that they both were "very, very busy" with 3+ hour waits. Upon further discussions with the doctor, we decided to keep him and home and take him in this morning, which we did.

He's one tough little dude. Last night was rough, but once he fell asleep he was out for the night. The burn runs the length of his hand and up his forearm and he barely flinched when the doctor was tending to him. I, on the other hand, thought I was going to lose my breakfast. They're most worried about nerve damage. He, though, is most worried that he has a bandage limiting his mobility on his hand and wrist. The doctor wrapped it three different ways and he still managed to pull part of it off.

We're headed to the Harborview Burn Clinic tomorrow. Needless to say, no more fireplace for a while. [Guilt, guilt, guilt]