His Shiner

My Remy is an acrobat.
He has the greatest ideas for feats of climbing, balancing and tumbling.
Sometimes he misses.
And in March he finally missed really good.

He was sitting at the table eating.
Lunch, I think.
Maybe dinner.
And his best friend, Macie, was sitting in her high chair next to him.
Eating too.

And there was this great big Mickey Mouse beach ball on the floor between them.
So what better to do?
He just had to put on a show for his sister.

I was doing the dishes.
And even with water running at full force
I heard him gasp,
Just before the crash.

My little acrobat had stepped down from his chair onto that ball.
Holding nothing.
I just know he was planning to show Macie how he can ride a ball around the room.
Like Curious George does in one of their favorite books.
(Thanks Curious George.)
But the second that he stepped on that ball -
I know you aren't going to believe this,
My three year old certainly didn't anticipate this -
It rolled.

And poor Acrobat Remy didn't roll with it.
I saw his hand grab out to catch something,
But nothing was there.
I wish I had been.
I've seen that moment in my head a hundred times since.

Instead, he landed in the perfect spot for a wonderfully terrible shiner.
His little eye hit right on the screw cap cover at the bottom of Macie's high chair.
And he hit it with enough force that,
On top of the swelling and bruising to be expected in such things,
He had a small, bleeding cut too.
It was really more of an abrasion where a couple of layers of skin had come of.
Poor, poor Remy.

Oh I felt so bad for my Acrobat Remy.
For once, I didn't even think about the camera at all that day.
His cry was much too sad.
He typically never cries longer than 3 minutes.
That day he cried until he fell to sleep.
(That is always how I know that he is really, truly hurt.)
I held him the whole time.
Despite the fact that my little Macie was alone in her highchair,
Worried and crying too.
I tried to make up for that later.

Ah, where is the cloning machine that will make two of me?
Or the time machine that would allow me to go back and be there for that second or third child, too?
But I digress...

Remy's eye was quite swollen the first two days,
Enough to push his lid a little closed.
And for those days he was pretty weepy.
And then all was back to normal,
Except an ugly bruise.

These pictures are about a week after the incident.
The gash is nice and ugly,
And some coloration has started to appear.

Now, it's been more than three months and his bruising is all gone.
But he still has a tiny, shiny little scar next to his eye.
I keep hoping that it will fade away for him.
And I keep holding my breath for the acrobat's next missed step!