Bandages

Summer's only a week old, and I've already been through one box of Band-Aids for my kids. While you may think my tots simply love putting the Toy Story bandages on to show off their love of Buzz Lightyear or illicit sympathy for nonexistent boo-boos, they, unfortunately, have all been used for legitimate reasons.

Somehow, as soon as the thermometer passes the 70 degree mark and shorts are pulled out of the closet, my kids find a way to fall, slide, or scrape against every possible surface in sight. I've already found myself picking blacktop out of one banged-up knee, precisely working a splinter out of a tiny finger, and cleaning out an elbow wound that occurred when one tot unnecessarily slid into home base. With three months left of Summer, I'm thinking it may be worth investing in a warehouse club-size box of bandages – it will certainly save me from running to the drugstore every week!

What's you're unexpected sign that Summer's upon us?

A bump here and bruise there can quickly add up to a lil one covered head to toe in Band-Aids. Even when there is nothing wrong, wee ones have a way of inventing boo boos just to have another bandage strategically placed on their body. But when tots have an actual need for a wound dressing, the mere sight of a first-aid kit can send them running for cover.

Offering an injured child his choice of bandages may be all that is needed to cool a situation down. Though bandage makers may have specific designs in mind for different wounds, allowing your tot to pick out the bandage he wants can take the edge off everyone involved. Who cares if that knuckle bandage ends up on his face, at least he'll have a smile on while you are applying it! And just remember, if one Band-Aid is good, two is always better.

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So last night, I was tooling along on my bicycle, smugly congratulating myself for facing my fears of riding in city traffic, when . . . whump! My tire got stuck in the track of the light-rail train, and I somersaulted through the air with my bike. "This is gonna hurt," I thought right before eating pavement. The good news is I managed to get out of the way of the oncoming train, so I wasn't flattened. The bad news is I was so bloody that I looked like an extra in a Romero film.

For the gorier scrapes, I used Neosporin and Band-Aids (and will be on crutches ASAP). But for the relatively small ones — those of a half-inch diameter or less — I'm going to switch to Help bandages. They're like any other bandage, with one smart difference: they're white. As Help puts it, "skin tone" bandages don't match most skin colors, which might seem like a dinky thing, but it's nice to have a universally flattering bandage. Less nice to need them in the first place, but you gotta roll with the punches. Or the bike-flips, as the case may be.