The Ice Pack and Teddy's Head

Once the kids are able to pick up habits at daycare (and are able to communicate those things to us), they bring home all sorts of interesting ideas. For example, I was quite surprised the first time that Margaret voiced her opposition to some perceived affront by saying, "Walk away, Papa! Walk away! Make another choice!"

For a while, one item from daycare that was central to Margaret's life was the Ice Pack. While the teachers at daycare use it to deal with the little bumps and bruises that inevitably occur in a toddler's life, the Ice Pack became the cure-all for every injury, no matter how minor, in Margaret's life. Take a little tumble to the floor - run to the freezer to grab an Ice Pack. Bump into the table - ditto.

Now that Margaret is coordinated enough to avoid these types of minor injuries, the Ice Pack has receded from its prominent place in her world. But although he doesn't recognize it yet, the Ice Pack will (and apparently should) play an important role in the boy's world. Because he's very prone to getting bumps and bruises. Not only is he still a bit clumsy, but he also appears to lack a sense of self-preservation that leads most reasonable people to avoid dangerous situations. Not that he has the opportunity (or skill) to hurt himself in any serious way, but he is willing to take risks that his sister seemed to avoid at the same age. A slide at the park? He'll toss himself down it, no problem. Stairs? An inconvenient obstacle to be surmounted as quickly as possible. Some people blame this on a gender effect, arguing that boys tend to be more "adventurous" than girls. Personally, I think that Teddy is just a little foolish. A prime example is his chipped tooth, but I'll provide a few more:

Example 1: When I picked Teddy up from school last week, Ms. Mary asked, "Did Teddy have a bump on his head when you dropped him off this morning?" Looking at the purple spot on the right side of his forehead, I said, "No, I don't think so." It turns out that this is a fairly common occurrence for Teddy at school. There was a time where I'd get an "occurrence report" every few days associated with some bump that Teddy had experienced (usually on his noggin). Now, the teachers at day care aren't lax in their attention. Instead, Teddy just exhibits a tendency to run into things (like the wall) or to fall down.

Example 2: Today, we were at a playground, and Margaret was climbing all over the place (not risky behavior, I think, because she can now handle it). Teddy decided to climb some offset stairs and, once he got almost to the top, tumbled off and fell to the ground below. In the process, he managed to give himself a nice bump on his right forehead on top of the bump that he got at daycare.

Example 3: While I was making dinner, Margaret and Abby had to run upstairs for a bathroom emergency. Teddy, who had been left behind (unbeknownst to me), decided that he wanted to climb the stairs. He probably didn't get very far before I heard: thump-thump, yahhhhhh! I ran out of the kitchen to find him sprawled at the bottom of the stairs with a big purple lump on the left side of his forehead. So now he has a nice symmetry between the bumps on his head (you won't actually notice the right side bump in the pics below, but that's because the left side one is so pronounced). We got an Ice Pack to keep down the swelling, but Teddy wasn't keen on it. Given his track record, however, he probably should get used to it.