First Blood

It had to happen sometime, and I guess I really should be happy it hadn't happened yet.

Chase had his first bleeding owie today.

I was in the garage, with the door to the house open, and Chase was amusing himself by banging on the keyboard of my laptop. I don't know when he realized I wasn't in the room, but I heard him coming - he is very loud when he crawls fast!

I expected him to crawl to the edge of the step and babble and gesture for me to come get him, the way he always does. But either he was going to fast to stop, or he wasn't watching where he was going, because by the time I looked up he was face down on the door mat.

He started crying, so I swept him up and spoke to him the way I do after any tumble. "Oh, baby, are you OK? That must have been surprising, to fall like that. And I bet it hurt, too." I thought at most he'd have a goose egg on whatever part of his face he'd landed on, but when he finally let me look, all I saw was blood. I cleaned it off while he cried (and cried, and cried...) and finally figured out it wasn't a bloody nose as I thought.

It doesn't look like much in this photo, but there's a nasty scrape under his nose. It looks like road rash from the rough scrape-your-boots door mat. Poor little fellow.

I held him and cuddled him and kissed him while he cried, and then put him down for a long and recuperative nap. This afternoon he seemed just fine, although at least one woman at the coffee shop thought he had a bloody nose.

I'm sure we're in for a lot more bumps and scrapes through his life. I just hope they are all as easily cured with mama kisses.