Head Injuries 101

If you've got a toddler...you need to know about head injuries. Today I placed Benson down beside me in Mother Goose to stop his wiggling. He objected by executing a full body reverse head-butt to the windowsill behind him.

Not exactly a new move to us, he often backhead-butts me right in the chin. Fun with mummy's teeth! This time seemed to really sting though, he had the silent screams which he rarely ever has. I am grateful for some sign of pain reflex!

I didn't notice until 10 minutes later that the cut was bleeding (why does this always happen in PUBLIC)...so we had our snacks and I took him down to Clover Care. Dr. Wong-Ting (sp?) declared him okay and left me with the following, which I'm planning to tattoo down my arm:

" While no evidence of serious injury is found at this time, here are the SIGNS TO WATCH FOR within the next 48 hours:
1. Increased drowsiness
2. Difficulty in rousing the patient (patient should be awakened every 2 hours during the first night.)
3. Persistent vomiting.
4. Slowing of pulse rate.
5. Continued headache.
6. Stiffness of neck.
7. Bleeding or clear fluid dripping from ears or nose. {this gonna be a tough one.}
8. Weakness of facial muscles or either leg or either arm.
9. Development of convulsions (fits).
10. No Aspirin, ASA.
11. Plain Tylenol ONLY.
12. Change in pupil size, one compared to the other.

She did mention that # 12 was one of the most important and his eyes were the most beautiful she had ever seen. (well, she said they were "fine". the rest was written all over her face.)

No stitches required because his hair will cover the scar. "And I bet he won't be doing that again..." sigh. How many times have we heard THAT?!!

Two

Last night it was so very hot. Benson woke up crying, matted with sweat. Bill broke his "no babies in the bed" rule to calm our heated babe by laying him on his chest. It's a favourite position for them...for Bill, the classic excuse to nap (for the LOVE OF GOD, don't wake up the baby!). Benson is decreasingly cuddly these days, so we love to take full advantage. Every time they lay this way, it brings to mind how much he has grown. It really is unbelievable.

Benson used to span from Bill's collarbone to the bottom of his ribcage. Then, to the belly button. Slowly but oh-so-quickly, he's grown nearly to the top of Bill's knees. (And Bill is a giant.) I watch videos from the first few days and it's incredible that that wobbly, skinny little creature has become this incredibly communicative strudy, skinny little toddler who learns in leaps and bounds and surprises and delights me every single day.

I remember in the beginning...I wanted to know him so badly! What parts of us would we pass along...who would he look like...would he love to dance or would he be introverted (no chance of that, though). I would watch him for hours to spot clues into the future.

Now that I know him, I struggle between wanting to know him even more, looking forward to his first non-parrotted "I love you" (not to mention pooping on the potty!) ... and wanting to stop time to just indulge in his sweet babyness before it slips away, since he stretches into childhood so quickly with every passing second.

Happy Birthday, baby.

Mommy Block

I can't wait until brain-to-blog is invented. I was kept up all night by a certain someone who had to punctuate each allergy-induced sneeze with a loud curse word and sometimes a smack on the bed. We really are the family that suffers together!

But I was laying there thinking of all the things I wanted to get ready for Benson's birthday partay along with all of my random thoughts I need to get out of my head and onto paper (er, screen?), ie: blog.

Buuuuuuuut when I get 30 seconds to do so I seem to surf around aimlessly and okay, let's be honest, spend way too much time on Facebook!

And now we're going to go outside and enjoy.

So when Benson is stressing me out in 15 years, I am not going to be able to look back on his teeny tiny years and all the feelings and dreams I had, and it's all Facebook / random July sun's fault. Darn it.