Family and Falling

Well, it was a day.

We had family over. Michael's sisters, father, and the rest of the Wilson clan joined us for lunch and a lively afternoon. (Lively for everyone except Elias, who slept from 11am - 3pm for his nap. He must be growing. He didn't even get up this morning until 8:15am. This was of course because I had ejected Kindred from the room when he began singing from his playpen bed at 7:30am. (He was sleeping in a playpen because the past several mornings he has amused himself by tossing various items of various densities (stuffed toys and books, shoes and clothing, boxes, towels, etc.) into Elias' crib while Elias is still sleeping. I don't think it's necessarily to be mean, but mostly because his desire to have a playmate overwhelms his sense of courtesy. So he was relegated, unhappily, to the "baby playpen" in the hopes that a lesson would be learned. We'll see. He's back in his "big boy bed" tonight.))

So anyway, Ffil and JT showed up to visit after a lengthy trip to the Holy Land, and the Wilsons braved snot exposure to bring children to play and beer to share (Seriously, I want to take a picture of how full my fridge is at this moment.) and to see our new house. Caden and Kindred played incredibly well together for hours, both of them adamently skipping lunch lest they have to stop their revelry. (Kindred also absentmindedly skipped on the potty. Four times.) It was a great time. (We missed Carol though, and I have no doubt she missed us.)

After everyone had left, some for the second time, Michael packed up to leave for rehearsal. Right before he left, Elias followed him up the stairs, but did not make it back down gracefully. He fell somehow down 4-5 stairs and stopped at the landing. From my vantage point on the couch, I knew it was going to be bad because before he had even finished falling he was crying out loud. He smacked his face on the stair so hard he actually took off a dime-sized area of skin under his eyes that split slightly and was bleeding. He also has a sizable purple swollen spot right under his eye. Michael says it looks like a boxing injury. He doesn't look quite as bad as this guy, but the swelling under the eye is very similar. Oh, it was traumatic for this Mama. And him, of course. Poor little guy. He eventually resigned himself to the fact that I needed to put a cold pack on his face many times, and would sit resolutely in my lap looking at a book with his good eye or watching his brother be silly. He was thankful to be back in bed tonight, where he know I wouldn't be torturing him and he could relax and feel safe.

All said, it was a good day, and we were thankful to have so many gather with us for a few hours.

And people, come have beer. Really.

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There are a few stories that have been sitting in my "to blog about" file for a while, and in an effort to make those posts appear, I will give you a small glimpse that I might feel compelled to explain:

Kindred and Elias and the cracker-fires
Lima bean peanut roast and string beans and broccoli.
Elias on the potty.
Throwing dirty diapers into the hallway.
"Do you want some of this Mama?"

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