A few hours ago my two-and-a-half year old lost her balance while climbing down out of her high chair (why, oh why, has she stopped doing it backwards? that worked just fine.) and bashed her face on the neighboring kitchen chair. She's OK, but despite prompt application of the chilly bear from the freezer, she's going to have quite a bruise on her cheek.
After the immediate crisis had passed, my wife looked at me and said "It's because we're going to see all the grandparents the day after tomorrow isn't it? I thought the mark where she bit her lip the other night was going to be enough."
See, it's always been this way. My kid is a normal toddler and has her share of bumps and bruises and scrapes. But she's not wildly accident prone. She's not one of those kids who always has a prominent scab or black eye or stitches. No, it's just when the distant relatives are around, or there's some other reason we're about to see lots of people who haven't seen her in a long time, especially if most of them will be armed with cameras. For us, the latter is generally our handful of regular summer music festivals.
Her first ever sidewalk header occurred right before the Old Songs festival. A year later, she had her arm in a cast. I don't even remember the details of last year's winter-holiday visible injuries, but I remember that they occured, like clockwork in the days before, after months of pedestrian "bonks" that disappeared without a trace.
Happily, I don't have a judgmental or overprotective family, but it still feels weird to spend every gathering explaining "What happened to her?!"
Are we unconsciously more distractible right before big events and let things happen we wouldn't otherwise? Or is this just Mr. Murphy and his law, parenting subclause, article 4? Does this happen to you?
Photo by slopjop, via Flickr.
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