Face Plant

When Tayson was a baby, purchased a high chair/ booster seat much like the on pictured below, instead of a bulky free standing high chair. These seats strap on to a regular kitchen chair and can work as a high chair or a booster seat for older toddlers. This has worked well for us for both Tayson and Brennen.

One evening in February, I lifted Brennen into his booster seat and strapped him in. Brennen, being the active child that he is, immediately started his routine kicking and thrashing around, but I didn't worry too much about it because he was strapped into his seat, and his seat was strapped onto the kitchen chair. His chair was angled to the side of the table, and I took his tray over to the counter to get his food ready to serve. I returned to the counter to finish my preparation and it wasn't long before I heard a lound crash, immediately followed by very loud wails. I whipped around to discover Brennen still strapped into his seat, but his seat no longer strapped onto the kitchen chair. Instead, Brennen, with the seat attached, was face down on the floor in front of the kitchen chair. The strap attaching the seat to the chair had give out, and with Brennen's thrashings, he had tipped himself off the chair, and with the angle he was sitting in, his face absorbed the entire impact of the fall. Both sides of his nose gushed blood for several minutes, staining several rags of mine, and his lip was cut and swollen. I, of course, panicked and felt like the worst mother in the world. Tayson is a very protective and sensitive brother, and when he saw the blood and how upset Brennen was, he started crying too. Clint was on campus, and missed the whole thing, although he did have to suffer through several phone calls from his freaked out wife.

As scary as it was, and as bad as it looked, young kids are amazingly resilient, and it only took 2 days for the lip to completely heal and all the swelling to disappear.