Ochies

Lily has reached the age of the skinned knee. In the last week she has drawn blood four times! Granted, three of those were on the same scraped knee  (the fourth was from falling in the tub on the drain and scratching her bottom). The first time she fell on the knee was at the park and she didn't cry or anything. She just got mad at me for having to clean her off when she wanted to play. The second and third time she was sad and kept saying "all done knee" which I think was because she wanted to be all done with it hurting.

I'm actually sort of surprised at how tough Lily is. She very rarely cries and we have learned to not react too strongly when she falls. She usually gets right up and says "I'm ok." It's kind of funny. Still, it is a tough line between letting her explore and play and keeping her safe.  I think Josh and I somewhat disagree about how much we should let her climb and risk. I am a worrier and don't want to see her hurt. Josh takes more of a "scraped knees are part of childhood" approach. What do you think?

When she got hurt at the park, I realized how unprepared I was. I had to make a trip to the store for peroxide, bandages, and neosporin. Now I keep a bottle of water in the car and bandaids and neosporin spray in my diaper bag. What other advice do you parents have for a first aid kit for toddlers?

The Fall

Well, it happened. Lily had a fairly serious fall....a fall that necessitated the boo boo bunny...a fall that made me feel like a totally crappy mom.

I was changing her tonight on her changing table. She was standing up and leaning against me as I unsnapped her onsie, when she lunged to the side and toppled off the table. I grabbed for her on the way down and sort of slowed the fall, but only managed to grab her diaper, which tore. She landed sort of on her side mostly on the carpet, but her cheek hit the wooden rocking horse that sits in her room.

As she was tumbling (which seemed to happen very slowly) I yelled for Josh, who came rushing up the stairs. I honestly think my reaction scared her more than she was actually hurt. She was crying fairly hard, though, which made me pretty worried. After a preliminary examination, though, it appeared that she only had a bruise on her cheek, but I sent Josh after the boo boo bunny.

By the time he got back upstairs, she was mostly calm. She would NOT let us hold that cute bunny covered ice cube on her (does that thing work as they get older?). Instead, she wanted to lick it! I debated whether it was worth making her mad to try to ice the bruising spot, but since it didn't appear to be swelling, I decided against it. Josh and I both checked her over pretty good and I think the worst of it is going to be a bruise the size of a quarter on her cheek.

At this point, after all the drama was over, and we were all sitting in the floor playing, I began to cry. I just felt so bad about letting her fall. I should have made her sit or lie down while I was undressing her. I should have had a better hold on her. I think I've gotten a bit complacent and give her more credit for balance and stability than she deserves. You can bet I'll be more careful from now on!