As I mentioned in a previous post, Coco gave herself a black eye before Easter when she hit her head on the corner of the coffee table. She isn't having a good month. Yesterday evening, I was upstairs (just about to start finishing my taxes so I wouldn't be submitting them at the last minute!) when I hear my husband yell "No, no, no" followed by a loud BOOM! followed by several exclamations of a synonym for "poop" that we try not to use around Coco so she doesn't integrate it into her vocabulary. I run down to the kitchen to find the high-chair tipped over backwards and blood everywhere. She'd been colouring at the table while my husband was making supper. I guess she got bored and decided to try a new game: "See if I can tip my chair". Well, lo and behold, she could.
Here I had thought that the chair (one of those portable high chairs you strap onto a chair) was a pretty safe place. I've been sitting her in there beside the table with a pile of books while I'd go shower for some time (I'm now giving up showering when I'm home alone with the girls... besides, showering and bathing are overrated... that's what I keep telling myself).
Back to Coco, she's okay. She had to have a 2 cm gash glued shut at the Children's Hospital (they are definitively getting a donation from us this year!) and she was so good. The doctors couldn't get over how quiet she was. She didn't cry once and was happy and smiling the whole time. She thought the visit to the hospital was a fun outing where she got to colour and they gave her stickers (she even climbed down off my husband's lap to go looking for the sticker lady for more). Thankfully, she doesn't have a concussion and everything should heal nicely.
How can we avoid these things happening? The solution is simple: go around and get rid of every single thing that anyone could possibly get hurt on, with or by. Minimalism is the new black, right? Who needs furniture? Those 'Monkeys jumping on the bed' are a serious warning (oddly enough, Coco was very marked by that song and goes around talking about the "Monkeys bobo tête"... my bilingual daughter)! And really, you can trip on a toy so we should get rid of those too. Bathtubs are death traps; I still remember my little sister falling in the tub and bleeding all over me when we were kids (I told you bathing was overrated). Toilets... don't get me started on them (Coco's first visit to the hospital a year ago). Anyway, this is getting ridiculous so I found another solution: bubble wrap! Oddly enough, when I entered "Bubble Wrap Astronaut Suits" in the Pinterest search engine, nothing came up. I'm surprised. I, however, have a drawer full of the stuff so I'm sure I can come up with a suitable pattern. I'll let you know when they're ready for sale.
I think we're more shaken up than she is. I really think this is the hardest part of being a parent.
We try so hard to keep them safe but we can't seem to avoid the occasional accident or sickness. And we're so lucky... Fine she might have a small scar at the back of her head where the hair won't grow, but it could have been so much more serious... Just like the incident with the coffee table where, a cm over and she could have affected her vision (I'm still debating having a bonfire with that thing). We're so blessed to have healthy children and that we don't have to make regular trips to the hospital for serious illnesses or injuries. My heart goes out to the parents who do... I can only imagine the strength it takes and hope to never have to find out.
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