Waking in the Middle of the Night to Screaming

We have been very blessed that Ethan has been an awesome sleeper nearly all of his life. He usually goes "night night" without any fussing and easily sleeps through the night. That was until the other evening when we were awakened by piercing screaming at 2am. I could tell immediately that it was an "I'm in pain" rather than just a "Come and get me mommy" type of sound. I rushed into Ethan's room and he was crying so hard, it was difficult to understand what he was saying. He managed to say "Li Li", which is his term for his favorite stuffed lion. I picked the lion up from his crib and quickly realized the problem. Ethan loves tags on stuffed animals and often slips a finger through tags that form a loop. The mane on his stuffed lion is very thick, and Ethan had wriggled his finger into the fur such that it had created a loop (like a tag) in the lion's mane. His lion had then gotten twisted around and around causing the loop to tighten on his finger, and his finger was swollen and slightly purple. I tried to get the lion off his finger and had to grab a pair of scissors to cut the loop and free his finger. Who knew that this innocent-looking stuffed lion could cause such trauma?

The Culprit

What struck us as somewhat funny and really cute was that, although he had been screaming and crying for several minutes, the moment that I cut his lion free, Ethan totally stopped crying and quietly said "All better". :)
Now whenever Ethan asks to take "Li Li" to bed with him, I remind him of the boo boo on his finger from the lion's mane, and he understands why lion isn't allowed in his crib anymore.