I love being a mother

But sometimes it really hurts. I mean, nobody told me that when my child got hurt, I would nearly physically hurt myself. >_<

We were at the park yesterday morning. I was letting Erin walk around kind of on her own. She wasn't going too far, and I could see her the whole time, so I figured it was okay to let her be a bit independent. It's good for her right? Well, there was another group there and they had a soccer ball. Now, Erin loves balls. I'm sure it's a normal thing for kids, but she went straight for it, absolutely delighted. It was just lying on the grass, and the other people didn't seem to care. So she picked it up, and turned around to bring it back to me.

Well, she was excited so she wasn't being as careful about walking, and she tripped. She landed on her face and hit her chin really hard on the ball. She didn't scream at first. No, she did the mouth wide open in pain but holding your breath thing, which mean that she really hurt herself. I was sure she'd bit her tongue or her lip or something, and sure enough, her mouth was filled with blood. WHY to mouth wounds have to bleed so much?? But I couldn't tell where she'd cut herself. It wasn't her tongue or her lip. I didn't want to traumatize her further by searching her mouth with my finger, so I just cleaned up the blood the best I could and tried to comfort her.

Later that day, after dinner, I was tickling her and got a great shot of the roof of her mouth. There was a white line and I thought "YAY! She finally has a top tooth!" Then I touched it, and it wasn't a tooth. So, thinking it was a piece of food, I started trying to rub it off. Well, Erin started screaming and I realized it...that was where she had cut her mouth that morning, and Mom wouldn't stop poking her!!! Ugh, my poor baby.

It's looking a lot better today though, and she's acting like she feels fine. So no harm done. >_<

What am I going to do the first time she needs stitches or breaks a bone?