Joshua & I went to a friend’s place for a playgroup get-together yesterday & it turned out to be more eventful than I’d anticipated it would be.  We were all playing in her living room when Joshua & other child went to the other room to play or explore.  Joshua stared at their fireplace & then touched the chain-link fence in front of it.  Apparently it was on because he said “hot” & pulled his hand away quickly.  I don’t think that my friend’s child is as curious as Joshua so she didn’t think much about it being on.  I looked at his hand right away & it looked fine & after the initial touching incident, he was fine.  We played for over an hour longer & all was fine until midway home when we left.  All of a sudden, Joshua started screaming & asking for me to “kiss boo-boo” over & over.  As soon as we pulled into the driveway, I looked at his little hand & saw that it was light red & had white grate marks from the fence part of the fireplace.  It was pretty small—about 1×2cm & a little bit on the sides of 3 fingers, but that was enough to worry Erick & me.  The poor thing!  It’s weird that it didn’t show up at all until so much later but that’s what happened.  I ran his hand under cold water at the sink, which he didn’t enjoy at all, but after that he seemed back to normal.  He was protecting it slightly for a little while but within an hour, he was using his hand completely normally.  Since it was so small, it didn’t warrant a doctor visit but I e-mailed a friend of mine who’s an excellent burn OT for her advice (thanks, Allison!).  Fortunately, Joshua is still using his hand completely fine, with normal range of motion & coordination.  No damage.  Hopefully this will teach him a lesson—not to touch fireplaces or anything that’s got a flame.  It has taught me a lesson—always double-check when there’s a fireplace & not assume it’s off or not hot.