A quick note for anyone unfamiliar with Dog Man:
Dog Man is a wildly popular graphic novel series for kids by Dav Pilkey. The books are full of silly humor, exaggerated action, dramatic sound effects, and comic-style storytelling. Ironically, the book involved in this bedtime disaster was a big, thick, hardcover Dog Man book — so it only felt right to retell the story as a comic.
Sunday, September 27, 2026
It was bedtime in the Stevens household, and all was going well.
We were having a campout on the floor.
Both boys were reading books.
I called A to brush his teeth and clean out his sinuses.
When we were finished, I called O.
O came willingly.
What we didn’t see was that A had grabbed his book. The book did belong to A, but O had been reading it.
When O finished and came back, he saw A with the book and snatched it back.
The screaming started.
“It’s my book!” shouted A.
“I don’t care, I’m reading it!” snapped O.
And then the tug-of-war began.
I was watching, and everything felt like it was happening in slow motion.
Then suddenly, A pulled, and O let go.
BAM!
The spine of the book hit A near his eye — or maybe on the eye. In that moment, I wasn’t sure.
What I was sure about was that it was bleeding.
I sent O out of the room and asked Nick to grab toilet paper or something to put pressure on it.
A was screaming.
SCREAMING.
The kind of scream where they can barely breathe.
My baby. My poor baby.
Finally, I got a good look at the wound.
Thank goodness it had missed his eye by a centimeter or two.
Thank goodness he could see.
We decided an ER visit was not necessary, so Nick left to get an eye patch to keep it clean and covered for the night.
A calmed down enough to check it in the mirror, which may have been a bad idea because it made him upset all over again.
Then O came in to see the damage.
His shocked face was honestly hilarious.
But his words were very serious.
“I guess I should repent.”
I said, “The action was an accident, so what should we be repenting about?”
O thought for a minute.
“I could control my actions better and not fight with him.”
“Yes,” I said. “You could change that.”
Then A chimed in.
“Mom, can we replay it?”
O immediately said, “That’s a great idea!”
I said, “Okay, let’s replay the situation and make sure the outcome is different.”
So everyone went back to where they had been.
O went back to the bathroom with me.
A sat back down on the floor bed with the book in his lap and a little blood still weeping from his wound.
O walked out of the bathroom and said, “Hey A, I was reading that book.”
A replied, “Oh, sorry. It is my book, and I wanted to read it.”
O said, “Maybe I could read it to you.”
A said, “YES!!!”
And just like that, they solved the whole problem.
I sat there smiling, feeling so proud of them.
So many people want to tell you how to raise your kids, but only you know how to guide them and teach them.
I lean a lot on Heavenly Father.
And on this night, I felt really grateful for two little boys who were willing to stop, reflect, and try again.
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