Bumps, Bruises, Heads, and Baby Gates

Last Week. The week from hell. I will always remember it. I will always hate it.


I have been a mom of a boy for almost 5 years now. I fully anticipated bumps, bruises, and the occasional broken bone. However, he has made it through these past 5 years remarkably well. There of course were a few bumps and scrapes, but nothing serious. No hospital trips, no stitches; nothing a few snuggles and a band-aid couldn't cure.

Along comes my second child, a girl. Well-mannered, tame, likes to sit still little girl. HA! While she is slightly tamer than my son, she loves to simply sit and play, and she is capable of some pretty darn good manners, she has been my trouble child from the start. I have worried about her from the moment she was conceived, and she has never failed to disappoint, filling our lives with drama.

My sweet girl, a problem from the start, has a stubborn core inside her little body that I swear doubles her mom and dad's own stubbornness. I have rarely met someone more stubborn than I am, and my little girl put my own level of stubbornness to shame. She walked on her own terms, doesn't like to do things that she alone did not think up. Through sickness, stubbornness, late development, and many other things, I never cease to worry about her.

This past week she did not disappoint. First she hit her head while on a family outing. She was playing around, not sitting nicely, and took a header off a picnic bench onto concrete. She survived and we carried on with our outing. The next day though, she just wasn't herself. I watched her carefully, and eventually decided to take her in. They said she had a concussion but since it had been so long, sent her home with a list of things to watch for. I continued to watch, and the day just got worse. By evening, I was pretty worried. I knew something was wrong, so back in we went.They did a full work up, and showed nothing concerning on paper, but they knew something was wrong. Turns out, a concussion and the Hand Foot and Mouth virus don't get along very well. She was one sick little girl. Tired but assured of what was going on, we took her home and watched her carefully over the next few days. She began to bounce back and we saw our sassy girl return to us.

Just a couple days later, as we were getting out of bed to begin our day, disaster struck yet again.

We have never had stairs in our home. We have never had baby gates or any reason to worry. Until this house. This house has two very steep staircases. One goes down to the basement, but there is a door at the top that I can close and control the use of them in that way. Our other staircase is up where our bedrooms are. We use it every day, there is no way to avoid it. Mostly, the kids do really well on the stairs, but still I worry. It causes me great stress to think of anything that could happen on those stairs. I stay awake at night  agonizing over what would happen if they fell?

We got a gate. It was just a cheap little thing, but it covered the top of the stairs. From recent events though, I know that little gate won't do a whole lot in the way of protection.

We were out of bed, starting our day. Gate was up, everyone was upstairs. Ella got the look in her eyes (my sister calls it her Mule look). She was going to do something, and she was going to do it herself..... "I open the gate Mommy!"

"No Ella! No! We don't touch that!.....No Ella! We don't touch!.....ELLA!!!!!!......."

Well apparently no wasn't going to work, approaching her wasn't going to work. I just wasn't close enough.

Ella reached over the gate, leaning on it as she reached. The gate just wasn't strong enough. As she leaned, the gate gave out. Ella and the gate went on the ride of their lives.To the gate's credit, it saved her life. I fully believe that. Since the gate was there, rather than tumbling, she slid. She rode that gate, head first of course, all the way down the stairs.

Scariest moment of my life, without a doubt.

Ella reached the bottom, clunked her head (of course) and immediately began crying. I believe I cried for a while too. She earned another knot on her head, and many many more restrictions.

No trip to the ER was made this time (luckily!) but I never relaxed that whole day. I watched her like a hawk for ANYTHING out of the ordinary that might mean further head trauma.

At this point, if I could put her in a bubble, wrap that bubble in bubble wrap, and attach her to me, I would.

Needless to say, we are the proud new owners of a very sturdy baby gate that is screwed in to the walls at the top of the stairs. There is also a temporary gate at the bottom of the stairs that will remain there until I loosen my restrictions on my girl....Don't hold your breath.

So here's to a new week. A week of no injuries. A week of quiet healing.....


...Wish me luck.....

One Year Later

It's been one year since our little family made big changes and big moves. We have settled down into this new life of ours and I think we have adjusted....mostly.

I have rejoined the workforce, and the kids have adjusted to school....again, mostly.

When I set out to start this little blog, I had the intentions of being intentional in my life. I only get to do this thing once. There are no re-do's in life. I want to make the most of what I have been given. I like to think that for the most part, I have succeeded in that....mostly.

I know there have been bad days, boring days, and days I would rather forget. However, mixed into all those days are treasured memories and lessons I have learned. Life is short. Life is hard. Life is also so, so good. Life is worth it. Even if it is a day of sitting around building legos and watching movies and dressing baby dolls, I want to treasure it. (Legos and baby dolls are what it is all about recently anyways, so if you aren't building legos or dressing up baby dolls, well then, maybe you aren't doing it right!! lol)


I hope I continue learning these lessons plus more in the next year of this little journey. I know I am an unfinished product, I have a lot of work to be done for sure. I also know that God accepts me for who I am, faults and all. He can still use me, my family still needs me. My children love me even when I am not patient enough. My husband loves and accepts me for the work in progress that I am.

I hope to continue to record all these precious memories as time goes on. One day, many years down the road I can return to this sit and sit back and smile as I go through all our memories we have made. I will probably cry too, because well, that's me. If I have learned anything else this year, it has been my passion for my life. My children and my family are everything to me and I FEEL so fiercely about them. It's a feeling/emotion that is hard to describe, but once you have felt it, you never forget it.