Kids Bounce

Since becoming a parent, I have been repeatedly amazed by how resilient small humans can be.  Latest example provided me courtesy of our 2yr old who, after refusing to finish her dinner in her high chair, walked the length of the built-in bench at our kitchen table only to discover the table was a foot longer than the bench.  After stepping off of the bench, her bottom lip hit the corner of the table on her journey to the floor.  From my seat, I couldn't see her land, but the distinctive sound a head makes when meeting an immoveable object was heard.  There was blood.  There was screaming.  There was more blood.

 

The table caught her in the lip, just right of center, at about the gum line.  A couple of her teeth had done some modification to the inside of her lip. The gash looked deep to me. But through a freakish, disturbing mommy/daddy role reversal, I voted for stitches, my wife did not. We compromised with wait a bit and see.

 

Amazement #1: Before the blood and tears had begun to abate, my wife offered a bath, and my kid accepted. I waited for the sound of running water to stop, noted the lack of crying, and stuck my head into the bathroom. My wounded child was sitting in the tub, blood still dribbling down her chin, pleasantly having a tea party with a big sister.

 

Amazement #2: She slept thru the night. I was certain the battle between her pillow and her contusion would have warranted parental attention between the hours of 1 and 4 AM. Perhaps concussions are funny that way.

 

Amazement #3: When I got home from work the evening after the bloodletting, I was greeted by my adorable daughter now sporting a very swollen, bruised lip that made it look like she was working on a giant pinch of Skoal that had gone terribly wrong. She enthusiastically asked “Daddy, daddy! Want to see bubble??” Not wanting to damper the enthusiasm, I answered in the affirmative. With one hand, she folded back her lower lip. With a finger on the other hand, she twiddled a small, bulbous, discolored chunk of lip flesh. My wife was appalled.  Although I was second guessing our stitch decision, I was pleased. She would survive.

 

And that ends this week.  It's certain that a similar course of events will transpire some time next week.  A child will fall, there will be drama, and they will move on surprisingly fast.  If only I could work some of that magic back into my 40 year old carcass . . . .

 

On the gaming front, a friend from work got hooked up with a 360 for Christmas.  I've been nagging him for a year to buy one.  He finally got everything worked out and made his first visit to the Live community Monday.  So I've been "helping" him get acquainted to the environment via CoD5 all week.  I also started the solo campaign for GoW2 last weekend. So he's been logging off around 11PM, I've been jumping into Gears. Thanks to my friend, my xbox has been played every night this week.  Thanks to my own self control issues (and a bunch of Natty Lights) I haven't seen my pillow before 1AM all week.  My ass is dragging today, but in a good way.