Thursday, February 11, 2010

Almost two is a perilous age.

Madeline has recently decided to test the limits of her own mortality. I didn't think she would reach this point until her first college philosophy class, but she was always an early bloomer. All of her recent climbing on chairs and laundry baskets had resulted in a lot of falling off of things and banging her head and various appendages on things. Two days ago she bit her lip hard enough to fill her mouth with blood. Twice. Once while trying to climb up a slide, and once while trying to retrieve some food coloring from the pantry. That same day she was in her first car accident, but that wasn't really her fault. Partly because the other driver hit us from behind, and partly because she wasn't driving, so it would be hard for any insurance company to pin liability on her.

I thought she was getting tired of beating herself up, until her bath this morning, when I discovered she had half a dozen bruises on her legs. Being the wonderful mother I am, I have no idea where they came from. Sometimes we hear loud banging coming from her room at night, so maybe she's kicking the sides of her crib. Forcefully. (And yes, I do go check out loud banging noises coming from my kid's room in the middle of the night. Even if I don't keep track of where her bruises come from. She's always fast asleep when I get in there. I can only assume she's picked up my restless sleeping habits. And strange sleeping positions. But that's another subject.) Anyway. I'm just hoping she makes it to her second birthday alive and reasonably unscathed. I've been assured that millions of toddlers have accomplished this feat before, so the odds are in her favor.

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