oh, there's no place like children's hospital for the holidays

what is it with my people and their skulls? my brother cracked his forehead open with great regularity as a child; he even developed a kind of rhythm: left side, right side, left side, right side.

not surprisingly, he passed the melon-smashing gene down to his progeny (ha ha). but somehow the dna jumped the genetic fence and also firmly implanted itself in both of MY children (wtf?!).

may i present the latest evidence? last night as i was pulling out of the driveway to go work, the handsome man came tearing through the snow in his socks shouting that thing two had just gashed her head. off we flew to the er to get 8 stitches in her tiny skull. and unlike her uncle david, she favored the path right down the middle of her forehead. grow some hair, kid - you'll need the bangs now more than ever.

fortunately, we knew the drill from the time thing one sliced her skull open when she was 2. thing one's cut was on the back of her head, so they sewed her up while she sat suctioned to a baby einstein dvd. not so with thing two; since she could see them a-comin' at her, she had to be immobilized and strapped to a board. 2-year-olds enjoy that. i'm already looking forward to her getting the stitches out on monday. (and yes, that will be christmas eve. because of course it would have to be christmas eve.)

again, what is it with my family and their noggins? why are my children's heads irresistibly drawn to every door frame they encounter? i've traced the tendency through my brother back to my mom, who falls on and crashes into things with pretty good frequency. and apparently her mother, my grandmother, once closed the garage door ON HER HEAD while bidding my grandfather goodbye as he drove to work.

i take after my father's clan: cautious, fear-based people who sustain few injuries. not exactly the most fun way to live compared to the head-long, woo-hoo, leap-first-look-second crowd, but i can say that i am intact after nearly 43 years on the planet, whereas i believe my brother still has a metal support rod or two in his body.

anyway. thing two seems no worse for wear today, bounding around the house as usual (no running!  NO RUNNING!). once again, my compliments to children's hospital in minneapolis, the best place to take sick or injured kiddies (we've been there on several occasions, each taking about a year off of my life). and big, big love to pegga for rushing over to stay with thing one while we took thing two to the hospital - i wish i had a thousand martha stewart magazines and a bushel of dried hydrangeas for you, my friend!