Hurricane Noah

I had intended to focus this post on one of the many typical (and by that I mean messy) toddler experiences we had today. There was breakfast at Taco Cabana, where Noah covered the floor around our table with potato and egg breakfast tacos and cheerios. And then in the afternoon when I was trying to get dressed, I turned around to see the floor covered with Q-tips, four of them hanging out of Noah's mouth. And right after that, he decided it would be fun to stick his hand in the toilet bowl and splash around. Yes, this is all in one day.

But just before bed time, Noah took a spill off his push car and tore his frenulum, the piece of skin that hangs down in between your lip and gum. Blood was everywhere, and of course he was screaming. Thank goodness Daniel was home or I probably would have called 911. The bleeding stopped within a few minutes and Daniel, after doing a cursory exam, was able to calm him down by reading to him from his favorite airplane book (thank you San Antonio Public Library). He was smiling and acting like himself by the time we put him down, but I am just heartsick. Seeing him injured and bleeding like that was awful. I'm still reeling.

There was a high point to the day, though. Noah says several words, but has been slow with the 'mama' and 'dada.' He's been able to say both sounds/words for many months, but until recently, he hadn't associated either word with us. However, in the past couple of weeks, he started saying "mama" if Daniel would point to me and ask, "Who's that?" But today, when he wandered into my closet and couldn't find me when he came back out to the bedroom, I heard him call, "mama? mama?" It was beautiful and of course made my heart melt. What fantastic Mother's Day present.