Today was a mix of good and bad with regards to the kids. This morning, Chloe walked over to me while I was sitting in one of the chairs in our living rook and indicated that she needed to be changed by repeating “doo doo, doo doo” over and over. She’s been doing this for a week or two now and I would say that she’s right about half the time. So, I picked her up and sniffed her bottom (she always giggles at this seeming invasion of her personal space) and she was definitely right about having a load in her pants this time! As I stood with her in my arms, she sort of bucked/jumped as kids sometimes do and just about shot out of my arms. I managed to “catch” her as I gained my feet and kept her from falling to the floor, but it was a pretty clumsy grab that was not at all delicate. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think I managed to smack the toy phone that she was holding into her eye as I grabbed for her. She cried a bit at first and then suddenly ramped up about two minutes later until she was completely incosolable. Looking at her slightly swollen and rather bloodshot eye we assessed that nothing was seriously wrong and we got her to calm down. Although she was completely fine, I felt guilty for most of the morning and early afternoon. I could only imagine how those parents who manage to accidentally cause serious injuries (and worse) to their children must feel afterwards. Thinking about it makes me ill….

Let me preface this second part of the story by saying that my kids LOVE to run around with their clothes on their heads. When we undress them, we don’t throw their clothes directly into the hamper, we drop them to the floor and let the other one (the one we’re not changing) play with them. It’s very entertaining for them and it keeps us happy, too. Anyway, tonight, as I changing Gabriel in preparation for bedtime, Chloe had grabbed her old clothes and walked out of the room with them. It was oddly quiet for a bit, so I called to her. I heard a couple of thumps and then some laughing and then I heard her making her way down the hallway. As she came into the kids’ bedroom, I turned to see her moving at a quick pace with her sleeper draped over her head completely obscuring her vision! She was making a beeline for her brother’s crib.

“Chloe, slow down! You’re going to hit your….”

Before I could complete the sentence, she crashed right into the crib. There was a second of silence and then she cried. I couldn’t help but laugh both because of how she came into the room, but also because she didn’t fall onto her butt or make any attempt to take the clothes off of her head. She just stood there, arms by her side, sleeper hanging from her head like a cheap Halloween costume, crying.

I sped up my efforts to get Gabriel changed, but she stopped crying pretty quickly – probably due to my laughing. I did manage to grab the clothes from her and keep them out of reach, though.