Fatherhood

Trouble with the stairs again. Patrick was following me down the stairs. I had already gotten downstairs and was sitting in front of the computer when I heard him heading down the steps. I issued a gentle reminder for him to be careful when I heard the thumping start. Knowing I was too far from the steps, there was nothing I could do but watch. As I described it to Jen ... "Think of the gingerbread man pose. Put it upside down and on the bottom step and that's what I saw rolling down our stairs." Patrick landed with a remarkably gentle thump and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before the screaming started. By that time, I had gotten to him and held him close until Mama arrived to take over. Amazingly, there didn't even seem to be a bump on his head ... No damage done ... but, what a scare!

A simple game of peek-a-boo, running around the loop of bedroom, bathroom, and hallway was interrupted with a quick game of "king of the hill," climbing the large pile of laundry that Jen and I have been working on since moving in (it is a challenge re-washing almost everything we own while keeping up with what we are currently wearing). Up the pile my son went, to roll of the top of the hill, into my lap ... over and over. It is amazing the fun we can have with laundry. Then, it was quickly back to running laps ... which got terminated when Patrick said "bye-bye" to his mother and promptly shut the bathroom door on his fingers. Amazingly, mother's kisses really do work as the tears stopped once she kissed the bruised fingers.

... well, not a baby. A little boy ... Patrick bonked his head at school the other day; a pretty solid hit. He left a bruise that lasted for a few days. He was dancing ... which at the time entailed spinning around the room. He hit his head when he fell into a book-case. He's always had a few tunes that caught his interest and he chair-danced. Today, he showed two new skills with music. While standing, he was bobbing his head to the music, making sure everyone was watching. He also, later, was swinging his arms while holding my hands to the music!

Patrick had a good fall last night. He was "running" from me, as only a fifteen month old child can do, when his feet slipped out from under him. He went down quickly and the back of his head slammed into the floor. I picked him up, just after the shock of the fall wore off and the pain kicked in. He cried steady until his head cleared a bit and the tears faded as he asked for "Mama." This got me thinking about the various times he has "bonked" his head. First, I should point out that he must have a very thick skull as there has been no lasting damage. Second, I will only present a few of the more memorable spills. The first I remember actually occurred at daycare. I picked him up that day and there was an Incident Report (I think I've still got it somewhere). Patrick was learning to stand, and apparently tried to use a bookshelf to pull himself up. A simple slip later and he had a vertical egg on his forehead. They tried to apply ice ... that...