We got a bruiser

And I'm not talking in the "My kid can beat up your kid" sense either. When I walked into daycare on Tuesday, I noticed that Alli had a bruise about the size of a nickel on her forehead. I could see this thing from across the room it was so prominent. A bruise that size on an adult isn't really a big deal, but that's pretty sizey on an infant... especially on her forehead. Of course, her teachers were quick to explain the temporary tattoo my daughter had received that day.

Apparently Alli has taken her crawling and "pulling up on everything" skills to daycare with her. Well, that's probably where she learned them in the first place. Anyway, she had crawled over to the play area where they store the jumpers and larger toys and decided that she wanted to pull one of them down to her level. In the process, the toy tipped over and bonked her in the forehead. Now before all you Followers get up in arms about the teachers being irresponsible or the daycare being unsafe - I saw the toy myself and it wasn't really something that could have been avoided. Plus, it wasn't that big of a toy - but due to her impressive strength nowadays, it had some momentum going before impact.

These kids are going to be pulling on everything they see, so it's impossible to put everything up out of their reach. Besides, if they kept everything out of their reach, how would they explore and learn about new things? So needless to say there had been some tears after Alli caught one to the forehead, but by the time I got there she could have cared less. She smiled that big, fanged smile she has going now and crawled over to me when I walked in the room.

The teachers had to write up an incident report which included a line at the bottom that read: "Describe the type of First Aid that was administered: Hugs". So based on that information alone I knew that it wasn't a huge deal. Plus, the day we caught her pulling up on things I made peace with the fact that this type of thing was going to start happening more and more. Which is exactly what I told Mommy B when she got home - she was going to have to come to grips that Alli will be getting hurt more now that she's mobile.

To date she really only has had 2 noteworthy injuries: A couple weeks ago she was just learning to crawl on her hands and knees and she face-planted into the carpet. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but when you already have 4 teeth in, lips get cut pretty easily. She actually drew some blood, but I think she was more scared/surprised than actually hurt. Nothing a little TLC and a ride around the neighborhood in the stroller couldn't fix. And now her bruised forehead, which again just some hugs were able to take care of.

I know that she'll be skinning her knees soon enough, quickly followed by stitches and scars (if she's anything like her father). I was lucky to have never broken a bone all throughout childhood - but I've cut a couple of my parent's anniversary dates short by needing a trip to the ER for stitches. Oh well, maybe the boys at daycare dig her "battle scars". Maybe they take her bruise as a sign that she's adventurous and independent. That's cool with me... as long as she doesn't start bringing any of them home with her until she's at least 21.