You know you need a new oven when . . .

Sam almost made it through his first year without major injury, almost. The night before his birthday, I was in the kitchen fixing dinner. It was frozen pizza night. The pizzas were in the oven and I was cutting fruit with my back to the oven. Sam was playing in the lid drawers as usual. All of a sudden, I heard him start to cry, It was the "hurt cry," the one you pay attention to fast. I turned around to see him standing at the oven with his hand on the window. I grabbed him away. He could not have been like that for more than 30 seconds, but it was enough to raise blisters on his hand. As I was running cold water over his hand, Joseph checked the oven door. It was truly hot. I had no idea the outside of my oven got that hot. We assumed it was because it was on so high to cook the pizzas. Poor Sam just cried and cried. Half and hour and some burn cream later, he still had not stopped crying. That prompted a trip to the after hours clinic (not cheap). The doctor confirmed he had a second degree burn and wrapped it up for us (not cheap, again). We also got a prescription cream for the burn. We did not see our regular pediatrician that night. When I explained what happened, he just looked at me and said, "You mean he touched the inside of the oven door." I thought, "I'm not that stupid, really." I already felt like a horrible mother, but I am not that bad. I assured him it was the outside of the door, but he just kind of looked at me funny. I wonder if he thought he was not getting the full story.

If you are still reading this story, I will try to wrap it up. Sam was pretty good at keeping his bandages on. He got lots of sympathy. Every time I told his story though, people would all say the same thing, "Your oven really gets that hot on the outside?" By this time I was starting to catch on and little pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, like the fact that our oven has always baked a little fast and seemed to be baking faster. The next night, Sam's birthday cupcakes baked in 15 minutes and almost burned. The oven got too hot to touch again. When we saw our regular pediatrician for Sam's one year check up, my suspicions were confirmed. After telling him what happened, he looked at me funny and said, "Really? I have never heard of a child burning his hand on the outside of an oven." I told him we were pretty sure our thermostat was out and it was time for a new oven. He jokingly offered to write me a prescription for a new oven. If only it were that easy. He did ask to take a look at Sam's hand and asked if he could clean it up and cut away some of the dead skin. If I had known how "not cheap" that would be, I would have said no and done it myself. Needless to say, it turned out to be a very expensive accident, what with the "burn treatment" bills and the new oven that is now sitting in my kitchen:) (The actual arrival of the oven was a fun adventure for another post.) And it will get more expensive, because now I need the cleaners to take care of the ceramic top and real pans with flat bottoms as opposed to the twelve year old warped ones I have now. But Sam paid the biggest price. I still feel horrible that he had to discover the problem with the oven first-hand (pun intended).


Once we got some good burn cream on him, it did not seem to slow him down much. He still toddled around the house with his new-found walking skills and he learned to eat with one hand. Little kids truly are resilient. I am just glad Joseph was home each night that week as wrapping his hand was a two man event.

And I just had to leave you with this. Who couldn't love that messy face with the slobber and mystery bruise on his forehead. I'm afraid he is 100% boy and there are many bumps and bruises to come, but hopefully no more burns.