A First Time for Everything

Today was our first parent-teacher conference. I appreciate so much that the teachers at Malcolm's preschool do this. We got to ask questions and she asked us questions. One that struck me as funny was Malcolm's eating habits. At snack time at school, Malcolm is always the first kid to finish eating (if he eats at all). Who wants to eat when there is so much fun stuff to do?! He also has a gross habit of chewing up food and spitting it out. He does this all the time but it was something that she had never encountered before. It started when he was younger and would shove way too much food into his mouth and couldn't chew it. The habit of overstuffing his mouth has stopped, but not the spitting out of food. It occurs most often with cheese and apples.

Another first for me - I was bitten by a dog yesterday. Malcolm loves dogs and always wants to go say, "Hi". I always ask the owner if the dog is friendly before we approach the dog and I always let the dog smell my hand before I let Malcolm near it.

A mom had her two dogs, on leash, in the play area of the playground. We went over to the dogs and I asked her if they were friendly and she said yes. As I reached my hand out to the Boxer, it bit me hard enough for me to have a deep gouge in my thumb. The owner was shocked; she said it had never done that before. I was too flustered and also bleeding to get her contact information before heading to wash up and get a bandage.

As we were walking home, Malcolm and his friend, Han, were climbing a set of stairs when the same dog came running up and lunged at Han. It was off-leash and obviously in front of its house. The owner called out to it to come inside. I am incredibly relieved that neither of the boys were bitten or attacked by this dog. I've got a call into my doctor to see if I need to go in for a tetanus shot and antibiotics.

I'm still undecided if I should search out the owner and talk about the situation. I understand that dogs can be unpredictable and I hope that she is more cautious with her Boxer. She had both of her dogs in the play area of the playground which is illegal in the city of Seattle. Can I count on her to keep the dog a safe distance from other people, most importantly children?