Goose Eggs Can Be Beautiful On the Right Person

We had our first real scare with Brigid today when Jack called me at the office about 11 a.m. saying BB took a fall and cracked her head on the door frame between the living room and TV area. I dropped everything and ran home to find him holding a whimpering, hyperventilating baby with a knot on her forehead the size of an egg. It was blue and purple and ugly and it changed the shape of her head. I was really very scared and called the doctor's office to see if they could get her in right away to make sure she didn't do something awful. She screamed when I got her in her fleece suit and cried all the short drive to the doctor's office. She reached out to me (I sat in the back with her while Jack drove) wanting me to take her out of the car seat, but all I could do was speak soothingly to her and keep my hands on her so she could feel some kind of comfort, at least the best I could offer in her then.

A nurse gave us a small cold pack, but BB wouldn't allow me to put it on her head. I can't say as I blame it. It must have hurt like nothing she's ever felt before. It hurt my head to look at it. They took her vitals, and they asked us some questions, the answers to which Jack had. She cried right away; there was no lull from the moment she cracked her head to the first cry, which means no loss of conscienceness. She did not throw up, and although she had been crying hard and for a while, she was herself by the time the doctor finished checking her reflexes and other areas on her skull. She wanted to get down and walk around the exam room. We got the usual warnings to keep an eye out for, but otherwise she was fine. She probably has a nice headache, but I did learn something: if you do give a child something to ease the pain in a situation like this, it should be tylenol and not advil because ibuprofen can increase bleeding, and a bruise is internal bleeding. Hmmm. I did not know that...

So our poor baby has a goose egg on her head for the forseeable future, and if I get a photo of it today I'll post it here for all to see. But everyone at the doctor's office kept saying things like, "She's beautiful even with a bump." She sure is. Poor pokey.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play??

Brigid has been exploding developmentally, however. Despite the tumble, which she took because she tripped on her own feet, she has been walking all over the place like crazy and is getting steadier on her feet when she's not clobbering herself. She has also added a few real words to her vocabularly. Although she says sounds that we take to mean things, she has actually said: Hello, uh-oh, balloon, kitty, doggie (although she's said something that sounds like doggie, usually when she sees a dog, she does a woof woof sound, but we count that). She says Dah Dah and Dah Dee, and I think I heard her say something that sounds like Patricia. But it's also what she's not saying but understanding that is astonishing. She knows things from her books and lyrics to songs we play. I said to Patricia the other night, "Sample a taco, Paco," which is a line from John Lithgow's CD. When BB heard that, she went out into the living room, started dancing and pointing to the CD player. I realized she heard the line and wanted to hear the song. If I say something like, "Hear the tick tick bunny," which is a line from the book, "Pat the Bunny," she goes looking for the book for you to read to her. She will look for her cup if you ask if she wants a drink. She'll go to the cookie canister if you ask if she wants a cookie. She'll point at Brin and indicate that she wants to go see Brin if you say Brin's name or kitty or Brinny kitty. There's so much that she's responding to and understanding, you can't keep up. It's amazing to watch. Now if we can only keep her safe...