My Poor Baby

Poor Baby Jer! For his big smile and sweet personality, this tiny little man has endured a lot! A few of the recent injuries that come to mind:

*Having his fingers slammed in a guitar case

*Ali accidentally whacking his head instead of the baseball with her bat

*A toddler friend accidentally breaking a mirror over his head (we love you C and know you didn't mean to!)

*Having Ali use his head as a leap frog post

*Toys thrown at his face by multiple toddlers

*People accidentally stepping on his fingers

in the past:

*falling face first out of his high chair when he pushed the tray off (completely my fault since I hadn't strapped him in due to being in a hurry. Hey, we've NEVER had a kid be able to get off the trays before, but he was in a newer high chair with a tray that pops off with little effort)

*Rolling off of our bed (this was when we discovered he could roll as a tiny little guy)

*Being flipped completely upside-down in his bouncy seat by none other than, you guessed it.....big sis!

*Being swung wildly in his Johnny-Jump up so that his little body hit both the fridge and the other side of the door jam (by the same culprit mentioned in most of these)

*Him rocking his rocking seat forward and hanging himself upside down from it, held in place only by his little legs, which were buckled in (this didn't hurt him though---just a strange stunt he pulled for us!)

*Being sat on several months ago by his sister. She was sitting so entirely on top of him that Daddy (who was watching them at the time) couldn't find Baby Jer in the room at first because he was buried under her on the couch.

and today's episode....the worst yet. My poor little boy got dumped completely over in his highchair, which is a baby booster attached to a real chair. His face bears the marks of the pain he endured as his cheek caught another chair on his way down.

Of course we were quite angry and upset with Ali and she was severely punished as she's been warned before when she's rocked his high chair or gotten close to knocking it over. She understands the severity of what she did and hopefully will NEVER, EVER do that again. I know she's a toddler and just being ....typical. But that's just it! Typical bothers me because toddlers bother me! This is just not a fun stage to be a mom! Not that motherhood is about having fun anyway and not that I don't enjoy the cute stuff and the sweet things. But sometimes I wish I could skip the years from 1-3, especially with a super strong-willed kid. God is really using this whole experience of having a toddler to refine me, build patience in me, and show me how worthless I am if I'm operating in my own strength as a mother instead of in His.

I hope that those of you with 2 or more will be able to protect the littlest one better than I have! My next kid will just ride in the back-back or sling 24/7 I think since there will be twice as many tyrannical siblings to cause these kinds of injuries!