insult to injury and injury

curls, originally uploaded by Kristy and Eva.

larry returned home last night from a nine day trip to madrid. eva and i had sort of a long exhausting week, for a variety of reasons. first off, she spent a few days launching herself into a new phase of testing me (by doing things like throwing metal cups at my head then asking "are you mad now?" and, say, throwing water from the bathroom sink on me while i was using the bathroom). that would be trying at any time, but being pregnant and without any adult back-up, i found myself pushed to and right over the edge a couple times. i also found the time exhausting because eva developed some sort of aversion to being at home, so i found it easier to just plan stuff to do, playdates or errands or the like, from morning to evening. that makes a mama tired and crave a break. but, we made it through. normally i don't really mind when larry is gone, but this time, i found myself whining about it more than was strictly necessary.

the major theme for the week, however, ended up being injury. poor eva has had a couple of good falls in her days, but she had four this week each of which probably rank in the top five of all time.

first, she was tripped by the [expletive deleted] dog, who once she determines we're going downstairs must beat you to the bottom for some reason. eva was at the top of the stairs, the dog took out her knees (i'm guessing), and she fell halfway down the stairs. on her face. she seemed more affronted by the fact that lemma would do such a thing ("lemma pushed me down, mama!") than she was by the rug burn across her lip, nose, and cheek. she also reported a hurt arm.

about two days later, she was goofing around putting her feet on the table while sitting in her tall chair eating breakfast. as i was repeating the line about feet on the table, she lost her balance and began to fall. somehow, her hips actually rotated upwards and she ended up with her hips and legs on the kitchen table before she fell head first onto the tile floor. she landed in a crumpled pile, and had a welt that covered a full third of her forehead, all puffed up with a dent in the center. ugh.

yesterday, with larry due to return home late in the evening, i sent this email at 5 p.m.:

so, some of you will recall that since larry left, eva was tripped by the dog and fell head first down the stairs, and then a few days later, fell basically from table height head first onto the tile kitchen floor. i commented that i hope it wasn't the kind of thing that came in threes.

at chipotle she took a header off the bench, but i caught her leg so that her head remained about 2 inches from the concrete floor. meredith commented that that counted as #3, and i had hoped so too. apparently not.

i was putting away sheets in the linen closet, and the open door creates a bottleneck in the hallway upstairs between the door and the big wooden cradle. she came around the corner, tripped on the first rocker of the cradle, and promptly smashed her face into the other
rocker (she's the perfect height for that span, what luck.) she was all puffy and bloody, and from subsequent examination, she seems to have done a thorough job of ripping her tight upper frenulum (i knew that would have to happen sometime -- ironically my mom just had
surgery to have hers cut earlier this week!) and also gave herself her first bloody nose. she seems okay now, though whiny, in part because she's really hungry and every bite hurts and is making her upset.

anyway, just thought i'd share. nothing ever comes in fours, so i feel safe now. knock wood! or no better yet, knock a soft padded room!
--k.

oh, why would i say that about nothing coming in fours? at 6:04 p.m. (one hour later), i was obliged to send the following email:

excuse my language, but fuck it all if she didn't just fall down the stairs... again. but this time, all the way to the landing. i heard, thump thump thump all the way down. oddly, she seems mostly cool with it, though her belly now hurts in addition to her lip, she reports.

i give up.
--k.

seriously. the poor kid, she was thoroughly beat up, and i felt terrible. also, i had a proud moment when i saw the heel of her hand toward her thumb had a deep blue bruise... and i realized i had no idea which of three of the falls might have caused it. if you can't narrow it down to fewer than three incidents, i think something is wrong! (and someday if an ER visit reveals mysterious old hairline fractures, we'll look back to this week.) it has been suggested to me that perhaps she is growing, causing her to be less steady on her feet. given that she told me earlier this week that her legs hurt inside her bones (growing pains), i think that's likely a big factor. nevertheless, damn... i'm tempted to keep her on the ground level of a padded room for a while.