Uh Oh

Luke had his first real injury a few weeks ago. I say "real", but luckily it did not involve emergency rooms or large amounts of blood. The injury has already faded, as has most of my guilt regarding the situation. I now feel comfortable sharing.

So, the day started like any other. Happy baby, lots of smiles, food throwing at breakfast; you know, the usual morning. However, he was unusually crazy and destructive with his toys. Then he pulled the garbage can down on himself. I had just dumped the garbage and the combination of empty can and crazy baby resulted in a big crash. This did not cause the injury, but it was foreshadowing for what was to come. After picking up the the little monster and redirecting him onto a new path of destruction, I immediately looked at our wooden IKEA bar stools. They are literally the last pieces of un-baby-proofed items in our place. (Along with the garbage can, I guess.) Matt and I tried to tether them to the wall or find some way of making them safe, but we had been unsuccessful to this point. So, of course, this is where Luke wants to spend all his time. We are just very careful to watch him and hold onto the stools when he's playing over there.

On this particular morning, Matt pulled out the video camera to capture something cute Luke was doing. He left it out when he went to work so I could try to get some video during the day. Wouldn't you know it, Luke decided to do something video worthy in front of our arm chair. I turned my back to grab the camera, turned it on, realized it was on playback and switched it to record; in the 6 seconds that took, Luke crawled the 8 feet from the chair of cuteness to the bar stools of death and pulled BOTH of them down on him. On his head to be specific.

I don't think I have ever moved so quickly. I just remember picking one of the stools off of his little body and telling myself to stay calm while wondering how quickly I could drive to the emergency room. I won't dwell on the next part of the story because it makes me feel bad, but Luke really only cried for a few minutes and I realized that there was no immediate brain damage and I calmed down enough to call Matt. Of course, as soon as I heard his voice I started to cry. (What a silly reaction. How did evolution allow that one to pass through?) I thought for sure he was going to have a shiner, but it ended up just leaving a bruise above his left eye. I tried to document the injury, but the child would not stop playing and hold still for two seconds. I also took this as a good sign.

So I had to get sneaky and take pictures when he was occupied.

Needless to say, the stools are now in storage.

So, there it is. One down and I'm sure a million to go. Would it be strange if I just put him in a helmet all the time?