Bang Your Head...

Okay, so as promised, here is post numero dos. The subtitle should be "How We Spent Our New Year's Eve." We had gone down to Marion Square downtown to check out the free New Year's Eve festivities. Initially, we had fun running around in the park, and Nigel really liked the lights.








After walking down King St. to grab some dinner, we walked back up to hear a brass horn and organ concert at a church across the street from Marion Square. We had no sooner sat down , when Nigel took a plunge off the bench, hitting the corner of a hymnal rack on the way down. There was a lot of wailing, and a lot more blood. We ran back to a restroom to get some cold water on the cut and see how bad it was, and once we saw the damage, I went running for the car, which was parked about 3 blocks away. Anyone who knows me knows that running is not a normal part of my physical activity, but I made it to the car pretty quickly and drove back to the church, where Margaret was waiting with Nigel. He was no longer crying, thanks to a nice woman who had given him a cup of orange juice. The gash on his forehead was still pretty nasty though, so we drove to the nearest emergency room. It was almost an hour from the time we checked in until we were finally seen, and I really had to hand it to Nigel for keeping it together, even when we were freaking out. When we were finally seen by a doctor, it was determined that stitches would be necessary. Now came the fun part, which involved myself and two male nurses holding Nigel down while they administered the stitches. Yes, they did give him plenty to numb the pain, but that didn't mean the kid was going to be happy with a stranger messing with his forehead. It took all our strength to hold the little guy down. He's big for a nineteen-month-old, but...he's a nineteen-month-old. We managed to hold him down, got him home to bed, and the next day he looked like this...





He has already had the stitches removed, and we have been assured that the scar won't be bad at all. Nigel seems blissfully unaware that he sustained a head wound, which is just the way I hope to keep it. He even gained the respect of his older cousins, all of whom have made repeated ER visits. Nigel has joined the club. We knew stitches would happen at some point, we had just hoped that it would be later. Still, it could have been much worse.

We also visited the Festival of Lights after Christmas, and had a chance to recreate a photo from last year. Here's Nigel in January of 2007...



and in January of this year...



Man, that kid grew fast.