"What is this red thing, acha?"

I was working on the New Zealand photos on my computer and Abhi was playing on the carpet behind me. He wasn't doing anything particular - just messing about. At such times he tends to keep up a constant patter which I have learnt to respond without really paying attention. I could hear that he was asking some question, but didn't turn around. The question was repeated, "What is this red thing, acha?" I ignored it again, hoping that he would either lose interest or figure it out himself. He asked again and something in his voice made me turn and look. Sure enough, there was some red stuff all over his fingers and with a start I realized that he had been playing with my photo trimmer. The trimmer has spare blades which I had taped down to prevent accidents, but our man had peeled them off and cut his finger in the process. But he didn't seem to be in any pain, just mildly concerned about the "red thing."

I, of course, was a tad bit more perturbed and jumped out of my chair and started making a fuss, calling out to Malini in between. In my defense, his fingers looked quite bloody and it was hard to tell what the injury was. By now he had cottoned on to the fact that something bad had happened to him and that he should be upset and was bawling away. I lead him to the sink and rinsed his fingers - thankfully it was just one cut - it was a bit deep, which explained all the blood. He continued to sob through all this until Malini reminded him that his finger was not actually hurting. Once the band-aid was on, he calmed down immediately, although he made a show of feeling sorry for himself.

Just another reminder of how kids will take their cue about how to react (even for something that happened to them) from parents and other adults. Of course, adults are prone to this as well...