Eden loves our neighbors. She tried to follow our neighbor Tanner over the back wall. She found the spot in the yard with the ungrounded chain-link fence panel and CRASH! After the shock of it all she was just fine until we noticed a “more than a scratch” wound on her head over her right ear. I got a call at work where Elisa told me that her head was gashed open but wasn’t bleeding. We decided to play it safe and went to urgent care. They glued her up and told us to keep it dry for 24 hours.

Don’t get me wrong, it was no walk in the park. Eden was scared. She kept asking for loves. And even when the doctor was out of the room, she stuck to me like a baby monkey. As soon as she knew they were finished, she was just fine again. She even said thank-you.

That evening before bed we were enjoying the cool evening weather on the porch. I was enjoying holding Alden, Chad was working on the playset and Eden was experimenting with dirt propulsion. Eden proved to be quite fascinated with throwing the dirt up in the air and letting it rain down on her. She was filthy! Then I realized it–I wasn’t supposed to get her head wet for another 18 hours or so! OOPS!

We did the best we could with a wet washcloth (her scalp was caked with dirt) and planned to throw jammies and her freshly cleaned sheets back in the wash after her night of sleep.

I picked up a new hobby while I was home on paternity leave. I wanted to design a playset for Eden. The idea was to get a swing and a slide and a trampoline at home before the baby got here. That way, while Mama is tied up with the baby, Eden will still have plenty of ways to entertain herself. We know from experience that she loves, loves trampolines and swings and slides. I spent about a week sketching out plans. Then I spent two weeks sawing and building. Someone with carpentry experience could have thrown it together in a couple days, I know. I’m just not talented in that area. But I’m pretty happy with how it turned out anyway. It’s the first big project where I got to try out my chop saw. There’s still a climbing wall and a swing beam that I need to install. I’m probably going to take my time finishing it up over the course of the rest of the summer though.

Eden is starting to pretend things. She has a game where she goes and rings the doorbell. (She has liked doorbells and other buttons for a long long time). Then we call out, “Who’s there?” She said, “Omi!” (That’s my Mom’s nickname). Today Chad went back to work, so “Papi” was at the door. It’s cute wishful thinking.

Over the weekend I asked Eden how she was doing. She is always interested in babbling. She adopted a sad-sad tone of voice like we use when we are reading stories. “Fall down… Bonk… Head.” It was cute. She hadn’t hit herself recently, so I think she was just telling me that she doesn’t like it. Actually, today she did hit her head, and she described it in about the same words, just without the melodramatic tone of voice.