Rough and Tumble

Liam is incredibly active and desperately tries to keep up with his sister. He can climb up on the coffee table, cross a room in seconds flat, and he has a knack for finding things that are off limits (electrical cords, breakables, etc.) even in a room that has been "child-proofed". His latest feat is that he's figured out how to wriggle out of the harness on the shopping carts and stand up in the seat (terrifying when this first happened a couple of days ago). And this is all before he's even figured out how to walk!

Of course, with all this activity and demolition (typical boy...Matt calls him "Destructor") comes some bumps and falls, and the worst part is that the worst seem to occur while he's within arm's reach. They happen too fast to stop it, but somehow it also feels like you're watching it in slow motion. So Christmas morning the presents were unwrapped, we'd had a yummy pancake breakfast, and the car was all packed to head down to Brunswick for more Christmas festivities at the beach. We were literally minutes away from leaving, and Liam pulled one of our heavy wooden dining chairs on top of his head. The dead silence that comes in the first seconds after a child hurts himself is the worst. By the time the screaming started about 10 seconds later, he already had a huge goose egg coming up. I tried to soothe him, hold ice on it, and (unsuccessfully) keep panic at bay while Matt called the doctor. We didn't think he had a concussion, but it was recommended that we get it checked out, so we waited 4 hours for the doctor who said to just monitor him every 2 hours throughout that night. By the time we finally left for the beach, he was completely back to his usually self, happily playing with his new drum.

We'd finally mended from that head wound (you can barely see the bruise through his hair anymore), but then yesterday I got a call from their school saying that Liam had once again injured himself. He was climbing on one of the baby play structures and managed to split his eyebrow on the edge of a step. If it's not one thing it's another. Back to the doctor. Fortunately no stitches...just that cool skin superglue. At least for boys facial scars are a bragging right!