An Eventful Evening

We once again found ourselves enjoying a beautiful late summer afternoon, so we decided to take the babies on a much needed walk to the park. Norah loves going on walks, but she especially loves them when Daddy is along as it means her chances of going to the playground improve dramatically. She and Jeff played for almost an hour while I kept Justin entertained and visited with some friends from the neighborhood.

When it was time to leave both babies conspired to stage a revolt, refusing to get back into the stroller. So there we were, me carrying Justin and pushing an empty double stroller, Norah running after me and trying not to hold Jeff's hand, and Jeff desperately trying to keep up with Norah. We were quite a sight.

All was going well until all of a sudden I heard a large thunk. I turned to see that Norah had fallen and landed flat on the ground. She had hit her head really hard on the sidewalk, and it actually left a huge mark that was the size of a silver dollar. It obviously hurt and she started to cry. Both of us were concerned but realized we needed to keep going in order to get her home as quickly as possible. As we were walking Jeff was doing his best to distract Norah by jumping around and talking to her. She responded by smiling and talking to him non-stop as though her head hadn't just connected with the pavement. In fact, the next morning we were barely able to discern even a slight discoloration on her forehead.

Justin was watching the two of them over my shoulder and much to everyone's surprise, laughed out loud! The sweet sound of his laughter stopped all of us for a moment as we realized what we were hearing. I don't think Norah cared as much as we did, but she smiled at him and kept talking.

Talk about a mix of emotions in a short time frame. We went from feeling sick at the sight and sound of our little girl falling and hitting her head (for the first time while on a walk), to being overwhelmed by the sound of our little boy's first laugh.