Tuesday, August 26, 2008

My Accident Prone Child

There is always one in every family. With my family growing up, it was my brother. He would always get hurt no matter where we were. My mom would say that he had a guardian angel because he always made out okay despite whatever dramatic accident occurred. One time, he cracked his chin open on the side of a swimming pool, another he flipped an ATV on top of his leg and there were various other mishaps during his childhood.

I had two major childhood injuries - when I was 3, I fell on a sheet of metal (don't ask why I was even around it) and broke a bone in my wrist and cut two tendons in half. In another incident while playing football with my old brothers (6 years and 4 years older), I dove for the ball and ended up breaking my collarbone.

So needless to say, Jelly Bean gets it quite honestly. I can always count on her to fall and get hurt no matter where we are. It is not like Peanut doesn't fall - they have only been walking for a little over seven months, but she stands up with a smile on her face and only later on does the bruise surface. With Jelly Bean, there is a fall and then you can literally count seconds...wait for it..."aaaaaAAAAAAHHHHH!" She will sob and sob...for a long time. If I give her any amount of attention minutes after the last tear has dried up, it will set off the crying all over again.

So, today we decided to take advantage of the nice day and we went outside for awhile. They love being outside and of course start to run around in opposite directions, so I have to put on my running shoes in order to keep up with them. They are so funny because while they are running, they have these goofy smiles on their face and are yelling with delight. It is hilarious to watch...Well, I digress... Jelly Bean decided to run up on the patio and bit it on a piece of uneven concrete. Down she went. At first I thought she would be okay, but then the wailing started. When I finally got to inspect her, I saw the scraped up knee. Nothing too terrible, but I did have to scoop them both up and go inside where I cleaned her knee and dabbed it with a little Neosporin.

Later in the day, we ventured out again into the wild back yard so they could run off some more of that 18 month old energy. Through all the giggles, shrieks and me saying,"Be careful!", it happened again. Down Jelly Bean went on the patio again. This time she found another spot to trip over, but the SAME knee suffered even more abuse! I ran over to her and picked her up as soon as the wailing started, inspected the knee, scooped up Peanut in the other arm and back in the house to clean the wound and apply another little dab of Neosporin.

While Jelly Bean scrunched up her face and whined about her new boo-boo, Peanut was chewing me out in her ole' Peanut fashion because she didn't understand why we had to come back in again. She was having a good time and didn't get hurt, so why did she have to suffer? Well, we were all suffering so I didn't have much sympathy for Peanut.

It was an honest attempt to get the "stink blown off" of my girls who have been stuck in a house because it has been hot, humid and sticky for a while now here in Ohio. I want them to be outdoor girls and love to play out in nature and not be cooped up indoors all the time like some kids. And they will be...just next time, I am bringing some bubble wrap.

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