Norah Eats Snakes, Gabe Wusses Out

Being a toddler must be strange. On a daily basis, the world throws new things at them, and they have to come up with ways to address these new experiences.

As adults, we have many years of experience to guide us to one reaction or another. Take this weekend for example. A mud dauber buzzed around my head when I was outside and I quickly, and ungracefully, removed myself from the area as quickly as possible. I had no rational reason to do this. I quickly identified the insect as a mud dauber. The rational side of my brain immediately informed me that, as far as I knew, nobody had ever been stung by a mud dauber. They aren't aggressive unless they are being messed with (and, actually, even when people have messed with them, I still can't think of anyone being stung by one). Yet, instinctively, because it looks like a wasp, I shied away from it with a bit of a flourish--which could, doubtless, have been viewed as an aggressive act should the dauber have been interested in stinging me. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been stung by a wasp--and I've never been stung by a bee of any sort--yet my body insisted that I get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.

Toddlers don't have that luxury, if it can be labeled as such.

One might assume that I will now go into a story about Gabe and a wasp, but that isn't the case. That story really doesn't have anything to do with anything except that, when it happened, it reminded me of the little piece of video we got of Gabe weeping over a small cut he got on his finger. Why did it remind me of that? I blame a lifetime of experiences--there, I tied it in, sort of.

Here is Gabe in the bath tub, clearly upset by the cut on his hand.

His reaction to this cut seemed remarkable to both of us because, up to this point, Gabe has been pretty indestructible. At any point from now back to when he first learned to walk, you could undress Gabe, closely examine his body, and easily identify at least three bruises, scrapes or other minor injuries. He is hard on his body and always has been. And, for the most part, he's taken these lumps in stride. Occasionally he will cry right after something happens, but we've decided it's more from the shock of the experience than from the pain that went along with it--and the crying stops almost as soon as it starts. Usually, a quick kiss to the afflicted area cleans the slate and he'll go about his business. Generally speaking, if I hear Gabe crying loudly, I know that he's just done something comparatively serious and it's time for the worrying to start.

This cut was odd because it actually happened a day earlier. It was a paper cut that he received while playing with either his tape measure (which would make it a tape measure cut, I suppose) or with one of his books behind the couch. I could never get a straight answer from him, but those were the only two things he had behind the couch, so it had to be one or the other that did it. After it happened, he freaked out a little, we put a band-aid on it, and he moved on pretty quickly. That night, the band-aid came off because he can't sleep with band-aids on for some reason, and the next morning we put another one on. Halfway through the day, he removed it again.

Later that night, this happened:

Gabe having a good old fashioned freak out in his pool. Actually, this was after the REAL freak-out, of course. Once the video started, he couldn't quite find his mojo again.

It was after this that he noticed the cut on his finger and Libby had to bring him into the house, put him in the bathtub, and address the wound like it might be life threatening to appease Gabe's sense of urgency.

And I found the entire thing fascinating enough that I thought about it two days later when a probably harmless insect buzzed around my head.

See, isn't it weird how the human brain works?

I guess that is my point. I'm sure I had something going through my head when I started writing this post, but I'll be damned if I can remember exactly what. Sorry.

Oh, and Norah eats snakes.

OK, so it's just one snake, and it's made of rubber. And the video isn't as adorable as it SHOULD have been. She was pulling it and stretching it out then letting go and snapping the TV stand (remarkably, it never backfired into her face, which would have doubtless ended up in about ten minutes of hysterics if it had). But, you know, it's a new video, so appreciate it for that, I guess. Obviously, not all of my posts are going to be "gold." Such is the problem with trying to put something on here two or three times a week.