Every 30 minutes or so, there is a crash or bang that makes you wince, followed by a round of crying or possibly screaming which requires you to run to the wounded soldier. The time elapse between the cries alerts you to how slight or major the resulting injury is, with long stretches telling you the injured party is quite terribly hurt or upset by the incident.
And so it goes, all day long, every day in our house right now. And adding to the fun is that it's anyone's guess who will be hurt next, as our resident 3-year old daredevil is hurt almost as much as our cruising, pull-up-on-anything-completely unsturdy 8-month old. Malia is certainly injured more often though, with more bruises than a week-old banana. Talk about mommy guilt...nothing more fun than toting about a kid whose face shouts to the world there is a CPS-worthy case of child abuse. Right now on her face I count 2 very large, brown bruises (with that hint of yellow/green to make 'em look really good), one on each side of her forehead. In the middle of said forehead are 3 scratches and a large red spot above, (expecting a bruise here in the near future), while her nose sports a bright red scratch as well. For awhile her eye was also sporting a nice bruise right above the crease, which made for a lovely black eye look. That one sure makes a mom feel good...it's almost a reminder that your kid could've lost an eye in the incident, but thankfully didn't. Ah, there's that mother's guilt again.
As much as having an accident-prone, active toddler has acclimated me to skinned knees and bumped heads, I had forgotten how painful it is to watch your baby get hurt so frequently each day. Given the variety of activities she attempts each day, it really is no surprise that she gets hurt so often, but it really doesn't make it any easier to bear witness to. The girl pulls up on every possible tall item, regardless of it's sturdiness or ability to hold weight, and all I can do is appreciate her attempts to scientifically challenge the laws of physics with her hypothesis and resulting painful conclusions. And somehow, not only does she fall, but she falls to the side and somehow rolls as well, hitting more than a few body parts against the ground. Why the roll? Just to ensure something actually gets hurt? Not to mention the slow motion of the fall, which taunts me into thinking that somehow if I had lightning fast reaction time, I might have been able to prevent the painful fall. And why are these falls so much more frequent on the hard-as-a-rock tile floors? I can identify the smack of her head on the tile better than I can identify which kid is crying, it's that unique and horrifying of a sound. My heart stops every time I hear it...and then begins again once I hear the awful, long and drawn out cry that follows and means she's really hurt. UGH. How your heart breaks for your children...it's something that surely won't get any easier.
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