My little wild child

(From the Aug. 27 Issue of the Citizen)

Accidents happen, but that does not make it any easier to deal with, especially when they happen to our children.

My 11-month-old daughter Cheilin has been walking for a little more than a month now, and it has been a challenge (to put it lightly) to keep her out of trouble.

The first chance she gets, she will head to the stairs or the kitchen or the bathroom. She is very curious, naturally, and loves to explore.

Well, on this particular day, my 8-year-old son finally lost his top tooth. It had been loose for quite some time, and with the help of my mother, we were able to talk him into letting her remove it.

We were at my mom’s house, which is a two-story, so there is always the concern that Cheilin will get to the stairs.

I was in the living room with her when I heard Deven screaming from the bathroom. He finally had a look at himself with the missing tooth and freaked out. He also did not like seeing all of the blood.

My first instinct was to run over to check on him when I heard him scream without even thinking. I stayed in the bathroom with him for less than a minute, and when I came out, Cheilin was already up two steps.

I ran to her and called her name, and it must have startled her, because she fell forward and hit her face right on the edge of the step.

Then there was a long pause, she stopped, and then the wailing started. I picked her up and saw lots of blood coming out of her mouth.

It was a horrible thing to see on my baby. It even made Deven stop complaining about losing his tooth.

I guess her two bottom teeth pierced her upper lip. On top of that, she has been teething with her top four teeth starting to break through. Those teeth broke through her gum and so she was bleeding there too.

There was so much blood coming out of her mouth, and I felt like the worst mother for letting it happen right in front of me.

It took about 10 minutes to get the bleeding to stop, holding her down to apply pressure to her gums.

We have gates at my mom’s house, but the opening to her staircase is very wide, so we cannot gate that area. We usually fence her into a certain section of the house.

Since I was with her, I let her roam free, thinking I would be able to stop her. I ran to Deven without even thinking, when I should have known that Cheilin would run to the stairs the first chance she had.

Later that evening, when we got home, she hurt herself again. This time, she slipped and hit her head on the floor, which is tiled.

She had a new dress, still on the hanger, and she was holding it and slipped on it. Boom! Right on her head.

Now she had a fat lip and a bump/bruise on her head. But it does not end here.
I decided to take her to the family room, where there is carpet. I thought she would be safer there. I was wrong.

She likes to walk over to the piano, which is in the family room, and hit the keys. She has done this plenty of times without ever hurting herself, but of course, she picked today to trip.
Boom again. She hit her head again on the piano. At that point, I think I was ready to put her to bed just so she would stop hurting herself.

I guess it was just one of those days. I know babies get hurt, but man, I just felt awful. With her fat lip and bumps and bruises, she looked like she got into a scuffle.

Parents cannot be careless when it comes to caring for their children, but on that same note, we are only human. We just have to accept that accidents happen and have the peace of mind knowing that we do everything we can to keep them healthy and safe.

I think the hardest part is knowing that it doesn’t end here. Between Deven and Cheilin, and am sure there will be many more bumps and bruises to come. Just please God, no broken bones!