When the answer lands at your feet

Last Thursday, I learnt one of the strange little lessons that life throws at you, the ones you don't really expect and make you shake your head in a life-is-odd kind of way.

A couple of months ago, you may remember, Goosey's big toe had a run-in with an anchor. The toe got infected and then the nail fell off. Since then the new nail has started to become ingrown. For about a week I kept looking at it and thinking: "I should probably take her to the doctor to get it checked." Not being urgent, life kept pushing that to the bottom of the to-do list.

On Thursday morning, I was talking on the phone and making toast for the girls. Goosey, eager for her breakfast, attempted to climb on the kitchen drawer. Pulling out the bottom drawer, turning it into a step, Goose climbed up. I looked down and was about to grab her when her right leg pushed the drawer jamming her left toe. The was that minute of silence. That second where you try and assess whether any damage has been done, waiting for that scream. Sure enough, the scream came.

Hanging up the phone and abandoning the toast, I checked her toe. It was beginning to swell and turn black. The poor little already-dodgy toe.

Appointment with the doctor made. I felt terribly guilty. I should have got her toe checked earlier, now she has a double-damaged toe.

Just before we got to the GP, Goosey had an accident. My toilet-trained 2-year-old, who rarely has accidents. I had a spare pair of undies, but that's it. Not pants, socks or shoes. So on the coldest day we've had this year, she's running round the doctor's waiting room, in just her undies and a jumper. Parenting gold. Plus, there's something about waiting rooms that turn my normally well-behaved kids into maniacs – I'm trying to peel a half-dressed Goosey off the top of a water cooler, when I see Lil-lil ripping posters of a nearby wall.

Finally, we get in to see the doctor and she gives us all the once-over. Probably wondering if she should call DOCs straightaway, I'm thinking. She checks Goosey's toe and says: "Well, I wouldn't normally have suggested slamming your toe in a drawer as a treatment, but I think she's actually made her toe better by doing it."

Apparently the damaged part of the toe nail that was growing in has lifted up, due to being slammed in the drawer and it will make the whole toe better in a couple of weeks. I sat there surprised and relieved.

So, what's the lesson? Two wrongs actually do make a right? Or you should put your worst foot forward? Well, no. I think the lesson is that occassionally something happens that appears to make a bad situation worse, but you never know, it may in fact just be exactly what you need. Don't be too quick to panic and see only the bad. The right answer may have just landed at your feet.

PS: Go and check out Lil-lil's artistic prowess at one of my favourite blogs Tiny Trappings, there's a whole post dedicated to her and her drawings.