Ava Falls Down. Bumps Head.

Thump. It's the sound all parents are always listening for and never want to hear. I can hear The Thump from two floors up on the other side of the house. You just kind of know when it's your little one making contact with the ground.

Today I heard The Thump and ran downstairs to find an Ava, hair in her eyes with a confused look on her face. That means I'm fast because only seconds later she was crying hysterically. She fell off one of the love seats that she plays on a lot. Heather says she heard an "Oh no" immediately after The Thump. Before the pain set in.

She hit her left forehead on either the hard wood floor or the wall. It quickly swelled up into a golf ball sized contusion about 1/2cm tall. Not what we like to see on our daughter but other than the bump she seems to be fine. No confusion. No lack of hand/eye coordination. No slurred speech... well, no more than normal.

She clung to Mommy for a couple hours saying, "no GooDah, go 'way" which is always just so cute that I can't resist giving her a hug. Whenever Heather or I came near her with the ice she cried and said "no ice." Whenever we even discussed her head she put her hands up and cried. She just wanted to watch Max & Ruby!

This is Ava's first big injury. The first one where the pain doesn't subside in a few minutes. She's had bumps and bruises before. Even some fairly scary looking ones. But this one will be tender for a while.

As a parent you wonder whether there's something more serious wrong. You immediately wish you had become a pediatric doctor. You quickly Google some first aid info from the most credible looking source. You worry about brain swelling. And severed capillaries.

Heather said she was surprised I didn't freak out. Often I do freak out when Ava gets hurt. But as stress levels increase I seem to have a personality that calms down and gains focus. That I wasn't complaining about child safety standards and the stability of the love seat was testament to how seriously I was taking it. I never like seeing Ava hurt and to see her really hurting just tears me up.

We watched her for a while. Heather called Grandma Ball. I surfed the internet. But she's fine. Tough little cookie. We're hoping there isn't too much black and blue tomorrow. Going through this makes me wonder how my parents made it through my shenanigans. Of course, I'm a guy... blood is expected.

• 

  ava

• 

  ava