It gets worse before it gets better

That's how the saying goes, right? Let's put it to the test.
Aidan on Friday after his fall (Day 1):


Day 2:

Yup, definitely worse. Although it doesn't seem to be bothering him from the looks of the photo.

Day 3:

Worse or better? Maybe about the same.

Day 6:

Here he is opening Valentine's with his brother. The dark purple bruising seems to be turning to yellow.

I suppose we have proved the theory. It is getting better each day but it still looks awful.

The cry

My poor boy.

Yesterday we were visiting my mother-in-law for lunch. She just had knee surgery so she is not up and around yet. So I took it upon myself to go into the kitchen and start lunch for the kids. I hadn't been in there more than two minutes when I hear an awful thud, a moment of silence, and then the cry. The cry where you just know something is wrong. Not the cry that you here 25 times a day and shout into the other room "You'll be okay." without even going in to check on the crier. The cry that makes you drop whatever it is your doing and fly into the room as fast as you can.

So from what I can gather, Aidan was spinning around, tripped on the area rug and smashed his face right onto the coffee table. Thank goodness it missed his actual eye and thank goodness my in-laws have a coffee table with rounded edges. It swelled immediately and turned bluish. I put in a call to our doctor's office and they seemed to feel that as long as he was not disoriented and not complaining of a headache or nausea to just leave him be.

Today he is his old self but his eye looks so much worse. Sean has dubbed him "Rocky" since he looks just like him after he won the fight agaisnt the Russian guy (Drago?).

So it seems that Aidan is always the one getting hurt in this family. Here he is the day before he turned three when he was again twirling, lost his balance and smashed his nose into our fireplace. Thankfully nothing was broken.

Gavin (knocking wood here) has never been seriously injured. I think it is partly because he is way too careful to allow himself to sustain injury. He is not a twirler, spinner,or jumper. Aidan has such an exhuberant spirit that he just bubbles over all the time. Gavin is much more reserved.

I suppose it is good in a way. Two bubbly spirits are sure to add up to some trips to the Emergency Room.

Kara-TAY

Aidan started Karate on Tuesday and is loving it. Back in October we went for a trial week but then decided not to join until after the holidays. Every week or so, Aidan would ask when he could go back to karate so I knew he really liked it--it wasn't just something he tried and forgot about.

He was so excited when he got his gi on the first day and the instructor--excuse me Renshi--put his belt on him. Then he went off into the dojo with the other kids. He paired up with an older boy who was a brown belt and that boy showed him what to do and how to do it when Renshi gave instructions. I was amazed how quickly he picked up on things just by watching what the other kids were doing.

Yesterday, I was so proud of him when Renshi did a block and asked what the name of that particular one was. Aidan raised his hand and said "Circle block!" which was really a circular block but close enough. This was day two of karate. I am amazed how much he remembered!

There is a lot of excercise and stretching in the beginning of class and I was afraid that Aidan would get bored with it. And with the karate instruction--yesterday they spent 20 minutes working on the circular block and I was thinking he was going to be bored but he wasn't. It is good for him to realize that karate is not all rock 'em sock 'em like on tv with Spongebob and Sandy.

I also think this is going to be good for him because it is something that is just his. All his life it has been "Aidan and Gavin" when doing activities, etc. So far, Gavin has absolutely no interest in doing karate. Which is kind of OK by me since I honestly don't know if we could afford to have both boys do it! (Sad but true.) Sean is signing both boys up for soccer this spring so maybe Gavin will find an interest there. I know Sean is hoping that at least one of the boys will follow in his footsteps.

So, I hope that Aidan will stick with Karate. I think it will be great for building his focusing skills and self-confidence.