A Bump On Your Head

Ouch!  He tumbled right over and I heard a loud thunk!  My heart skipped a beat and my whole body began to tingle.  I felt tears swell up in my eyes and my nose started to burn.   You are the mother, Tenessa.  You need to show that you are the strong one.  You need to console your son and make sure he is okay.  Just hug him and whisper that you love him and he will be alright.  It’s going to happen many more times in his lifetime.  After all, he is a boy.  He will be climbing on things and seeing how high he can get so he can jump down.  Just a little bump on the head.

This was the first time in six and a half months that I actually had to comfort McCoy because he was hurt.  This will not be the last, but it was a whole new experience, none-the-less.  When I hold McCoy in my arms, he loves to look around at the surroundings and watch the other children play or look at people passing by.  Not on this morning—he buried his face into my shoulder and just cried and cried.  He screamed and hollered.  He looked at me and pouted his lip out and then took in a deep breath as he wrapped his chubby arms around my neck.  Mommy!  That hurt!  Let’s not do that again!!

We have been working on sitting up at home and at daycare.  Yesterday morning, when I dropped him off at daycare, we sat on the floor and he was playing with the various toys that surrounded him.  I was talking to one of his teachers, and boom!  He toppled over and bonked his head on the shelf.  I have never heard him scream that like before.  I swept him in my arms and just held him while he cried.  His teacher ran to the freezer and got an ice pack to put on his eye.  The swelling never came but a little bruise developed.

Sigh.  He’s going to be fine.  But let me tell you, that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done so far in my journey to motherhood.  And once he stopped crying (still whining a little), I had to leave him.  And that was the second hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

I love you, McCoy—even though this is the start of many bruises and bumps on your head.