  Nearly a week has gone by and I haven't even blogged that Ellie got her first black eye. I think I'm getting a complex about how many injuries I find myself blogging here. There was Aidan's big fall where he hurt his teeth so bad, Ellie's two headers off the couch in a row, then Aidan's penis debacle, and just about the very day that healed, Ellie took a header off the kitchen counter. And that last one sounds so irresponsible to write! Let me explain. It's one of my most treasured family rituals. John comes home and cooks in the early evening, and as he does so, Aidan and Ellie sit on the counter next to him.
Sometimes they "help" tear apart cheese or wash beans or lettuce. Sometimes they play with the magnetic letters on the fridge next to the counter. Ellie graduated from highchair in the kitchen to actually sitting on the counter around 13 months, and even then John would keep his body or a hand near her. In the last two months, though, she's demonstrated her ability to sit still and be safe so he's ventured a few feet away on occasion. Last Thursday, Ellie was just out to do harm to her poor little body. As I was talking to my mom in the afternoon she daringly stood up on the chaise and walked up and down its slope.
I didn't touch her b/c I kind of wanted her to fall. I try to follow our parenting mantra, taken from a wise mother of three boys and grandmother of two boys we met in the Kit Carson park in Toas last year: let them get hurt on the small things, or else they will get hurt on the big things.
I held my breath and hoped for the least hurt but most teachable fall. She didn't fall, and therefore felt emboldened to be even more dangerous. In fateful words, I told my mom, "Ellie is just out to break her neck today. " Unfortunately, I didn't tell John that. I overdid how much I needed a break from the kids just so I could get the car and go to the store to buy his b-day present.
While I was out he began cooking dinner and she fell off the countertop, landing right on her head/face. I was standing in Banana Republic when I got a phone call from a very upset John and Ellie. I sped home in record time and John and I began the giant process of determining whether or not to call the doctor, whether or not to rush to the ER, whether or not to just wait and watch. Here's where my super-bookshelf is handy. I have medical advice from the most conventional western med pediatrician (Schmitt's Your Child's Health), the most unconventional homeopath/truster of the body over medicine (How to Raise a Healthy Child Despite Your Pediatrician), and everything in between (Dr. Sears' Baby Book). In particular, my most trusted source is called Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child, and it explains what the approach would be if you went to see a conventional doctor, a homeopath, an acupuncturist, or a nutritionist.
Ellie's eye began to swell pretty quickly. She hit both the bone just above her eye and her cheek bone. I put topical arnica and ice on both of those areas, which really did a great job preventing bruising. I was wary of putting either on the more sensitive eye, though, so that bruised and swole quite a bit. Her eye was almost halfway swollen shut. The books all agreed that no one really does skull x-rays b/c minor skull fractures aren't treatable anyway, so we decided we could monitor at home just as well as any ER.
She was instantly exhausted (the fall was a half-hour b/f bed time anyway, but crying and head injuries are famous for zapping kids' energy. I let her nurse to sleep, but woke her every thirty minutes for the first few hours, then every two hours for the whole night. She had no lack of balance, confusion, blood in ears or mouth, all signs of concussion. The bruise is already really faded and the swelling was gone within 48 hours. She looks like such a bruiser, the pretty girl with a big black eye. Yesterday she gave me a scare with a bloody nose, just a trickle, but it reappeared this morning.
So I called trusty Dr. Ho to see if this is a sign of concussion (they could take up to four weeks to appear), and he did his usual best to say it's nothing to be scared of, just probably a picked nose or a dry nose. Good ol' Dr. Ho. The internet and doctors alike seem to be markedly unconcerned with bloody noses. I've only had one my whole life, and it scared the crap out of me, so I took it big. We mark it under experience and lessons learned. Another parenting adventure. Fortunately, this proved to be a learning tool. Getting hurt on small things put into practice, she's much more cautious these days. But John still feels *awful*. 
