Mama Angst

2-1/2 weeks ago my daughter wanted my cup of hot tea, so I drained it and gave it to her. She was having so much fun throwing her head back and trying to drink out of it, but she would lose her balance and stumble. The second or maybe third time of throwing her head back she fell all the way forward on it and started crying. Sure enough her forehead started swelling and she wound up with a bruise across the center in a diagonal - kind of looked like the Nike swoosh actually. The bruise is gone but when she furrows her brow, you can still see an indentation. It kind of reminds me of Reese Witherspoon for some reason and I think it's cute ... but I also feel guilty that it was my fault for giving her the cup. Some folks think it will go away eventually and I'll ask about it later this month at her check-up (if she still has it), but I think the underlying worry and the reason I feel uneasy whenever I think about it is that I am sure it won't be the last thing that happens that will be my fault. I know you can't foresee every danger and I don't want to be a nervous wreck around her - I purposefully have let her toddle and fall on her own as she has learned to walk and she has done so well - until I gave her a mug that she was having so much fun with ... and that I was enjoying watching her have fun with. (Incidentally, she managed to swipe that exact cup off the counter and onto the floor last night as I put her in her high chair for her pre-bedtime snack. It broke into many chunks and small pieces and is sitting in the garbage can. It was a freaky episode - the first of its kind - so her forehead indentation how now outlived the mug that left its mark.)

Soon there will be bikes and horses and all sorts of things. Hopefully she will grow fond of any permanent markings of her childhood. Ugh this parenting thing is tough.