Callapidder Days

L. is working on dropping his afternoon nap. I’m not quite ready for that transition, so I keep sticking him in his crib, day after day, with the assurance that he’s allowed to play in bed if he doesn’t feel like sleeping. Two or three days a week, he takes me up on that offer, but on the other days, he still conks out.

It can be hard to get through the day without a recharging session when you’re a busy 2.5-year-old.

Today, apparently, it was also hard to get through the morning without multiple injuries.

Injury #1

L. was playing happily in the basement while I organized tax forms (my favorite activity ever) (I’m kidding), when all of a sudden, the crying began. If you’ve had a toddler, you know that there’s a difference between the “I’m not getting what I want” cry — which, quite honestly, seems to be constant in this house — and the “I’m really in distress” cry. This was the latter.

The poor kid came clomping up the stairs, crying all the way, and by the time I got to him, he was in the hallway, with his mouth gushing blood. Okay, gushing is probably an overstatement. Perhaps dribbling blood would be more accurate. The point is, there was blood coming out of his mouth, and that concerned me. And all he could tell me was that his train tracks had hurt his mouth.

I attempted to pry open his mouth to find out if a tooth had been knocked out or if the tip of his tongue was no longer there, but he would have none of that. Finally, he calmed down a bit and I offered him a drink of water. He sucked in the cool refreshment, pronounced “There. ALL Clean!” and went back to playing. No further sign of blood was detected, and though I haven’t been able to determine exactly what happened, I’m going to just believe that everything is okay, since he ate lunch without a single complaint.

Injury #2

L. ran through the kitchen, tripped on the bottom of a gate we have across one of the doorways and flew across the room, head-butting the rather sturdy dining room table. Much screaming ensued.

Result: Large lump on head. M&M’s offered as a consolation. A few minutes of cuddling on the couch together and all was well.

Injury #3

This was one of those, “I told you that you’d get hurt if you didn’t stop doing that” injuries that moms are far too familiar with. You know — the kid takes off his shoes and starts playing “fun slipping and sliding games” in his socks, on the hardwood floor. Next thing you know, you hear the crack of a kneecap hitting the floor and the tears begin to flow. Good thing it was almost nap-time by that point.

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L. can go for weeks days without falling or running into things. Chad and I often shake our heads in amazement, because with his crazy antics, it’s a wonder he hasn’t yet broken a bone or required stitches. But eventually, I guess, these things catch up with him and he has a day like today — one OW-ie after another.

Needless to say, he fell asleep immediately upon getting in bed. Hopefully he’ll wake up refreshed and a bit less accident-prone.

In the meantime, I need a nap too, because I spent a good chunk of the afternoon working on taxes. That’s enough to give anyone a headache and cause them to require a nap. Better go sneak in some shut-eye before L. gets up.

[Note: If you happen to subscribe to my feed and you saw a bizarre post on there from something called "Blogo" that stated it would "soon be deleted," I'm sorry. I've been experimenting with some offline blog-writing software and apparently, that particular program was playing with my blog when I wasn't looking. No warnings -- just a briefly-existent post that is now mysteriously gone. Weird. But that should be the end of it.]