If you've followed along with Natalie's tales of injury over the past 20 months, you're familiar with her penchant for having multiple accidents per day, resulting in countless falls, cuts, scrapes, bumps, bruises, trips to the ER (ok, so that just happened once for an accident)....anyway, you get the idea. I wouldn't call Natalie a clumsy kid at all, which is the odd thing. I actually think of her as a pretty athletic kid for someone her age. She was an early crawler, and an early walker. She's a daredevil, afraid of nothing. She climbs the rock wall and rope ladder on her swing set, walks up the slide, dives off of furniture, yelling "jump" whether someone is ready to catch her or not.
So, why the injuries? And why the name change? I think the injuries are directly related to her athleticism and fearlessness. There's not a thing she won't attempt, hence participation in higher risk activities for someone so small (i.e. diving off furniture, scaling playground equipment). Plus she's a wild woman who cannot physically sit still unless she is sleeping, and even then she is all over the place.
Eric thought of the catchy nickname last night, or one injury ago. Saturday night, Nat was running outside, tripped over a high spot on the sidewalk where two squares of concrete meet, and did a full layout. She ended up with a few scrapes on her knees, and a nice patch of road rash on her right elbow. No biggie, but it did end up being a decent scrape about the size of a quarter or bigger by the next day. Monday night, we had a few more minutes to go before it was time to go in for the night, and decided to head for the swings. Nat took off through the yard, which is probably due for a mow, tripped, and tore the scab loose, but it was still on. The result was a much nicer scab by this morning. Late this morning, I was giving Jack a bottle, when Nat decided to "sweep" the kitchen floor. She got out the broom, then got bored with the activity, and left the broom in the middle of the room. Can you tell where this is going yet? Nat tripped over the broom, running full speed for her milk (or something?), landing on the kitchen rug, which is sort of an indoor/outdoor, hard weave rug. The entire scab came off this time, with a considerable amount of new skin. Too much info?
Anyway, she came screaming to me, waving a badly bleeding elbow. Her shirt and shorts were covered, there was a trail across the hardwood, thankfully none across the carpet, and ended up all over my shirt. Jack's burp cloth also took a beating since that was the closest thing I had to put pressure on the wound. Lots of tears, a thorough washing, "cream" and a bandaid, pacifier, and cuddle with Minnie, and she was out like a light....
Nat and Cici passed out on mama's bed
That is a very fitting (and catchy!) nickname for Natalie. Those rhythmic gymnastics classes couldn't come soon enough for her, haha... she is a bruiser. And so brave. So many spills she doesn't even shed a tear (unless you happen to be Aunt Beth and happen to pinch her skin in a snap... then she'll point to it for a week and rat out "Bef"). Bubble wrap her up tomorrow, would ya?!
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