Fat lip

Today, to get out of the house, we decided to take a little trip to Bed Bath & Beyond, to use a gift card I received for my birthday to buy a waffle iron. We haven't had a waffle iron since we moved here almost 4 years ago-- somehow it got lost in the shuffle. That happens when you share a home with another couple. Anyway, BB&B was right by the mall, so I decided to take the kids to the play area inside the mall, since it has been raining buckets here lately.

We had only been in there playing about 5 minutes when I saw Rose do a face plant off one of the structures. I ran to her right away, and started cuddling her. I noticed that her mouth was bleeding a little, but I wasn't concerned. Another adult told me, "Mom, she's bleeding!" I said, "I know." A little more cuddling, and I took another look. Her mouth and hand were all bloody, and so were both our shirts. I took both kids, in their stocking feet, to the family bathroom, which seemed an eternity away. I washed Rose up really well, and saw that she was just fine, with just a little fat lip. I washed the blood off her shirt and dried it under the hand dryer. I decided that we came there for playing and that was what we were going to do, darn it! I didn't want to gross anybody out with her bloody clothes, though.

We went back and played for another 10 minutes or so. The girls had an okay time. They get really stir crazy if we don't go out and do things occasionally, which is the main reason we stayed there.

On another note, I got really annoyed with other parents at the play area. It clearly states in the posted rules (you can't miss them-- they're right by the only entrance!) that shoes are NOT to be worn in the play area. There were several children wearing shoes, two of whom looked to be 3 or 4. I'm not going to get mad at a 1 year old wearing shoes, because frankly, usually they're pretty soft, their feet are small, and the children don't weigh a lot and aren't as active as older children, so the shoes won't cause much damage to other children. But older children? This is a play area primarily designed for really young kids, so the older children can really hurt the younger kids wearing shoes. Especially when they're jumping off the toys or wearing pointy, hard cowboy boots. Ugh.

I'm not even going to get into the inappropriate discipline that I witnessed at the play area today, other than to say, spanking is not the most appropriate discipline tactic for a 1 year old. Positive reinforcement or redirection works soooo much better, and witnessing a very young toddler being spanked, even lightly, was really shocking to me. That is all.

Here is Rose's fat lip. Poor sweet girl! It doesn't look too bad, but there was a LOT of blood!