Kids are surprisingly indestructable...

There have been a number of times in the past year and a half that I thought I'd killed my son.  Seriously, from the time that I squooshed his fingers in his high chair tray, to when he rammed head first into a wall at my neighbors house, and of course the numerous times when he was learning to walk that he would hit his mouth on our wicker coffee table.  Joyous.....

Well, I thought for SURE on Saturday that he was a gonner.  I think the incident gave me a heart attack...and I panicked.  All I was thinking was that I don't know how to get to the closest hospital from here.  I was sitting on the staircase watching him run back and forth through our house.  I think he was very excited the tree was up and lit and was just running and screaming.  Well, he comes running towards me, all happy, and he trips about a foot from the banister and goes crashing FACE FIRST into the large base.  I mean, I was right there....I saw his face hit the corner, and I immediatly thought he knocked a tooth out, split his lip, blackened his eye, and at the very least, caused some sort of brain damage.  OH I scooped the child right up and ran him into the kitchen.  I tried to examine his face through streaming tears....poor guy...I felt so bad.  He had his hand jammed in his mouth so I pulled it out to get a look at all the missing teeth I expected to see.....and oh lord....blood.  Blood everywhere.  I grabbed the first icey pop I could get my hands on, shoved it in his mouth.  Well wasn't he just happy as a little clam.  "Oh!  Unexpected desert before dinner!  Wonderful!"

I have gates everywhere in my house, outlet covers, door handle prevention thingy ma-jiggys, but the reality is that you can't protect your kids from EVERYTHING.  Things just happen that you don't even think about.  I try and keep him safe, but keeping him 100% incident free is impossible.  I just try and take it day by day and teach him how to be safe on his own.  And when he does get hurt....I just want to be there to hug him and let him know that everything's going to be ok.

My poor little guy had not ONE bruise, bump, scratch, or scrape from this incident.  I don't even know where exactly the blood was coming from in his mouth, but it has not affected his eating or drinking, and I see no swelling of gums, and he's doesn't flinch when I brush his teeth.  All it took was a hug and a popsicle.  Amazing.  It shocks me how much kids can get into and how much pain they can take, and yet they just keep going.  Look at how many pricks of the needle they get before their 2!  Yikes!  I get one a year and cringe everytime!!  Children may cry and scream, but eventually they just pick up where they left off and keep on going.  You know if it would have been any adult, we would have pulled the biggest pity party, laid on the couch and watched movies, and maybe even called out from work!!  But not my resilient boy....he went on stacking blocks, laughing and giggling, and running through the house. 

Although I have noticed he takes a wide circle around that banister......