rooted to the spot

this morning, miggy finally (finally!) started reading harry potter. he was reading the philosopher's stone when he asked me what does rooted mean. he was reading the part when mr. dursley was suddenly embraced by a stranger and he was rooted to the spot.

i explained to miggy that it means not being able to move and told him that the expression was derived from trees being rooted to the ground, thus unable to move.

just about an hour ago, something happened to miggy (again!!!) that reminded me of that expression.

we just came back from the library when it happened. miggy borrowed a cd-rom of a spiderman game and he was too excited to try it. but, i told him that it has to wait until he has finished his math’s homework. his exams will be on wednesday. and in his school, it seems that getting even 5 mistakes is unacceptable. (that’s true, i’m not exaggerating. i once talked to his teacher about it and she told me that she was expecting him to perfect it because the other kids can do it. great, gone were the days when i was still in school and getting at least half of the questions correct is already a big accomplishment.)

anyway, so i asked miggy to do his homework but he really wanted to play the game. he was complaining a lot and it was very obvious that he wasn't happy. he was stomping his feet and hitting the couch with his fists. still, i left him in the living room to do his homework and i went to the bedroom to attend a conference call with my colleagues in london and america. i was only about 5 minutes into the call when i heard miggy screaming his lungs out! luckily, my blackberry was muted; just in case one of the kids cries.

you know what happened? simply put, miggy poked his left foot with his pencil! it was a newly sharpened pencil. according to my mom, when ate j (the nanny) gave miggy the pencil he was still in his stomping and hitting mode. and, by accident, he poked his left foot with the pencil. the sharp part of the lead was broken and was left in the wound. and, this happened only a week after the same foot was freed from the cast!

imagine all of this crying and shouting happening in the middle of a conference call. i had to attend the call inside the bathroom to get away from all the noise. it was so frustrating hearing my son crying, asking me to comfort him amidst his pains and not being able to do anything about it. anyway, good thing the call was short; it lasted only 30 minutes instead of an hour. as soon as the call ended, i attended to miggy’s foot.

after too much poking here and there with a tweezers, a nail-cutter, and a big needle, i really cannot get any part of the lead. either it melted after all the poking i did, or there wasn’t really any part left in the wound. so, i just gave miggy a paracetamol for the pain. and put betadine on the wound to avoid any infection.

i googled about such “accidents”, worried about lead poisoning. but, i found out that there isn’t really anything to worry about since pencils now doesn’t really have any lead on it.

what does it all have to do with being rooted to the spot? well, as always, to make the situation light, my husband teased miggy. he told miggy that since the pencils are made out of trees, after some time, roots will grow out of the lead that was left in his foot. and when that happens, he won’t be able to move anymore and he will be rooted to the ground. this of course started another bout of crying.

after i have reassured miggy that it will never happen, miggy told me that he was very sorry for not listening to me in the first place. and, he told me not to worry, because he won’t water his foot so the roots won’t grow!!!

*_*