Skinned knees are fun

This is how Emmie has looked for the past few weeks:


The poor thing learned to run recently and now it's all she does. Except she thinks she's Marion Jones and not a 17-month-old who hasn't fully developed her sense of balance or the ability to watch where the hell she is going.

The nasty scab/gaping wound/MRSA-waiting-to-happen hole in her knee became a fixture on her leg last week at the park. I was not witness to this particular incident as I was dropping Jack off at camp, but Grandma said she took off running and had no sense to look where she was going and left the skin of her kneecap on the concrete. But she barely cried with that injury, thus proving my theory that having a brother beat the shit out of you for a year makes you a very tough little girl.

Things were fine until a few days later when she was playing in the basement and stumbled over one of the 54,000 toys we have down there. Right on to her knee. Which resulted in her scab being ripped off by the carpeting and blood pouring forth. That one earned her a Band-aid when she finally stopped crying. Except every time she looked down and saw the Band-aid, the crying started anew. Which was cute for a few minutes and then kinda annoying after an hour. I was like "Get over it sister. You've had worse happen. Remember when your head was slammed in the fridge? That's worthy of crying. This is nothing." Surprisingly, my buck-up speech did nothing for her outlook. Instead she crawled into my lap and laid with her head on my chest for a half-hour, sighing and burying her face every time she looked at her knee.

This past weekend she added the double-scraped shins to her repertoire when we attended a post-wedding brunch. She was having a delightful time climbing up and down the brick patio stairs. Until she slipped. And then the screaming ensued because she slipped right on the edge of the bricks, scraping both shins the entire way. Nothing is more fun at a wedding brunch than a screaming, bleeding kid! Although, what better form of birth control for a young, married couple?

I know her legs will likely look like this for years to come if she's anything like her mother and likes to play outside and run around and generally act crazy. But if we could avoid any more gaping wounds for the rest of the summer, that would be nice.

And just so he doesn't feel left out, here's a picture of Jack. He has plenty of bruises of his own to show off, but most notable would be the dark circles under his eyes. Those would be the result of yesterday's no-nap shenanigans coupled with his penchant for waking up before 6 a.m. every day.



I will spare you the pictures of my own dark circles, which are also a direct result of Jack's penchant for waking up before 6 a.m. every day. That is something no one should be subjected to.