Shiner

Caleb got his first, then second, then third, bruise this week.  He's on a roll.

First he fell over while sitting in the grocery cart at the store.  It was the first time I'd tried putting him in the cart, and he was sitting quite well until I had to step aside and unload the groceries at checkout.  While I wasn't standing right beside him for ten seconds, he fell over and smashed his head against the wire cart, which left a nice mark by his eye.  In the moment of mishap he went from perfectly peachy to woefully weepy and let everyone in the store know about his troubles.

Next, he pulled himself up on a bookshelf at home, then slipped and smashed his face against the shelf as he fell to the floor.  That's what caused the beautiful shiner you see in the picture.  This happened a few days ago, so the bruise was even lovelier before.  Caleb didn't cry about this particular incident, which is ironic since it left the biggest mark.

Lastly, he pulled himself up onto another shelf this morning, and as he turned around to look at me he let go of one hand that was supporting his balance and again smashed his face against the shelf as he tumbled down.  Hence the red line underneath the previous bruise.  I'm not sure what it is about the right side of his face, but that's where all the catastrophes have happened thus far.

When I first saw the shiny shiner on Caleb's right cheek (which was truly black and blue), I swept him into my arms and emotionally held him and kissed his face and whispered sweet Mama love into his ears because it hurt my heart to know he'd been wounded in the Battle of Standing On His Own and I wanted to make it all better.

Eli watched my display of Mama love and said simply and bluntly, "Krista, he's a boy.  He's gonna get a lot more bruises."  Harumph.  I scowled at Eli, but he speaks the truth.  Sigh...

I think he looks like a pirate here.  Arrgh!