Man Down

Dear Olive,
We learnt a big lesson this week. And that is, that whilst being a super fun Dad is excellent, wearing rings while showing off monkey bars skills, is not. And while the injury to Shane's finger is easy to see, the trauma you sustained seeing your Dad almost lose a digit (with it's fair share of blood), is harder to identify. You stayed extremely quiet on the drive to hospital, and in the hospital waiting room, and back at home. Eerily, uncharacteristically so. When I tried to get you to talk about how you felt by telling you how scary it was for me, you'd snap your head away, and pretend that I said nothing at all. For about a day, you seemed terrified of Shane, too. When he spoke to you, you would look only upon his bandaged hand. To poor Shane, this rejection-of-sorts was far worse a wound than the actual injury. After a day or so, came a landslide of tantrums and crying. 
Knowing it was a lot for you to process, we consulted our families personal child psychologist, your Aunty Sarah, who said that it sounded like you had been confronted with the (very frightening) realisation that your parents are not, in fact, immortal. She suggested we remind you that accidents happen and that when hurt, bodies are designed to heal. And she said we should validate that you must have felt scared and shaken, and tell you how normal your reaction was.
We're doing all that, and cuddling you through it, too.
(As for Shane, he will heal. It was a deep, nasty cut, and obviously extremely painful, but he was stitched back up and we're hopeful that a big scar will be the only permanent damage. He'll be off work for a while - and, unfortunately for me, off washing up duties, too. But rest assured, he did manage to buy a small condom-like device to go over his bandage so he can still enjoy a swim. It ain't all bad.)