It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about my adorable little Goddaughter Eve. Eve turns one year old in just a few short week and it’s really hard to imagine that twelve months have passed since she was born.  Time has truly flown! (and yes, y’all will undoubtedly be treated to a post about her birthday party, next week!)

Recently, for her new show-stopping trick, Eve has started to walk.  She took her first steps a few weeks ago and for the last few weeks, she’s been walking – grudgingly.  She has preferred to stick to what she knows and her crawling gets her around faster, so she has gone with that.  She has treated us to the occasional few steps, but once we get excited, or produce a camera, she doesn’t want to know – the crawling returns.

These last few days, however, she’s been favouring walking, she’s pulling herself up on things, or pushing herself off the floor, more and she’s starting to scoot around on her little feet a bit more competently.  Her balance is getting better with every step.

Today, however, while mummy was at therapy pets with Baz, gravity got the better of her and backwards she tumbled towards the floor, while playing with two sets of keys.  I saw it all happen, (in slow motion of course!) from about six feet away and although I was almost completely sure she didn’t hit her head off the floor, the screaming was instant and also, ‘urgent’.

I figured it was the shock of the fall that prompted her screams, so swept her up into my arms, drew her close to my chest, stroked her hair and started to sooth her screams.

However, the screams continued, and continued, and continued some more.

For a second, I thought she was being a drama queen, the fall wasn’t *that* bad, and a quick fright shouldn’t have made her scream *quite* so loudly (she’s a really easy going, mostly unflappable kid who normally only cries when something is wrong), so I told her “Eve, that’s enough” and continued to cuddle her, but she was clearly upset.

The screaming continued…

Feeling like a bad aunty, and perhaps having missed her hitting her head off the floor I searched the back of her head for blood, a lump, anything.

But there was nothing, so I turned her to face me for the first time since she fell (I was so focused with her head possibly hitting the ground, that I didn’t think about her face) and was greeted by blood trickling down her chin and coming from her mouth.  The poor little girl had bitten her lip, with her newly growing little teeth (that seriously make her look very grown up!) on her way to the floor – just an FYI, this story seems to span over a long period of time, but, for any of you who have had a child fall in your care, although it may feel like a lifetime, realistically, however, it all happened within just a few minutes!

My stomach tightened, my poor little munchkin was hurt! On my watch, no less!! I know Magz and I know she’s understanding that Eve is finding her feet and accidents will, and do happen, but to my knowledge, this was Eve’s first ‘boo boo’ and I felt pretty crummy.  Especially now that I knew she was hurt, her cries were hard to hear 🙁

I reached for a babywipe (it was within arms reach) and mopped up her face (which was difficult cause she kept shoving her fist in her sore mouth) and what I’m sure was a small amount of blood to begin with, just seemed to multiply as she smeared it around with her little face.

I went into the kitchen, grabbed a tea towel (I figured kitchen towel would stick to her mouth and a tea towel was sitting out already so I didn’t have to go digging!) wet it and she let me put it between her lips (mostly cause she loves slurping water off cloths like a classy lady!) and I cleaned her up.  But she was suuuuuuuper cuddly and still unhappy (in fairness, I’d have been unhappy too) and Lindsay suggested I wrap an ice cube in the cloth and let her suck on that – which we did for a while until she forgot all about her boo-boo and went back to playing with her toys (and the keys, and my purse).  I’m hoping the ice will help avoid a ‘fat lip’

So, what’s my point? My point is to listen to your little people, no matter how much you think you ‘know better’, or what you assume to be true.  If they’re acting out of character, chances are, like Eve, it was with good cause!

Thankfully mummy Magz took it in her stride, as I knew she would, and kindly put me out of my misery saying Eve bumped her lip last week also – so she wasn’t cut for the very first time in my company (I know it wasn’t my fault, but I was still responsible for her, y’know?)  I don’t think there’s ever any danger of anyone thinking I hurt her, my love for squirt is as clear as day, but it hurt me to see Eve hurt and to have doubted, even for a split-second that she was ‘exaggerating’ her seemingly painless fall in any way.

As you can see, Eve, in spite of her bloody T-shirt, was in good spirits and still had plenty of smiles for Aunty Las and I got lots of kisses, cuddles and she followed Lindsay and I to the front door, not wanting us to leave of course 😉