one hundred!

This is the 100th Dennis Report! Since I got out of my house sans camera today, these two shots were taken of him in his carseat (with my cell phone) while we were waiting for Daddy to come out of Wal-Mart. If you see them, note the bruises on his forehead and cheek. This has been a tough week for his head. Cheek bruise occurred at a friend's place on Monday night, where he was climbing up stairs for the 30th time after we'd pulled him back down. He was on the first step, so we weren't too concerned with injury and neither of us had jumped up to run and scoop him up (like we did when he was on the third or higher step). Somehow, as he was gripping the iron upright spindle to pull himself up to the next step, his foot slipped and he caught himself on the railing, but he used his face to do it. He cried some, and we didn't see any marks on him at all that night. Yesterday a red line appeared, and today it looked like he had a purple dimple.

The forehead bruise happened today. He was toddling around at the lake house and slipped on his box of Winnie the Pooh books that he had tossed on the floor just moments before. Again, he was saved from falling by hitting the large tree stump/stool that was where it always is, but he saved himself with his head, and he has a very large purplish knot that popped up immediately. We have slathered his head with Arnica cream, and that has helped, but he looks like he's been in a baby gang fight nonetheless. His Gran was a bit more concerned than me, and maybe that's bad, but I know that children his age are extremely accident prone and there will be more bruises in his future. There appears to be no significant injury, thank goodness (I would definitely be concerned then), but the timing is bad. His great Granny is coming to visit this weekend, and she's worried enough about my parenting skills without seeing him covered with bruises (in her mind, I think I'm still 8 years old). Bad, bad, bad. It's like when I schedule him for professional photos and he immediately bonks his head into a table or scratches himself majorly with his own fingernails or gets a big mosquito bite on his face. I'm trying to look on the positive side, like maybe the deep purple of the cheek bruise really enhances the beautiful blue of his eyes... Nah. That didn't work. He's a boy; boys are rambunctious; bruises will happen; I'll be strong. Enough said.