Lots and lots of blood...and some saltines for me.

Those of you who have kids, or work with kids, or just know kids, know that they all come with their own little personalities and tendencies.  Its a funny thing to observe your own children and see that just because you all share DNA, the individuals in your family tend to be, well, individuals.

There are many personality traits I could discuss here, but for the purposes of this post, I will focus on coordination and accident attraction.

My oldest, while a bit knock knee'd, is rather coordinated and athletic. He rarely gets hurt, and if he does its because he is trying some daring trick or diving catch.

My second oldest does not sit still and is constantly moving and somehow manages to never get hurt, although those around her within arm's length tend to end up 'accidentally' wounded.  Spinning, leg kicking, and other rather abrupt gymnastically motivated movements tend to pose threats to innocent bystanders.

My baby, who is almost 4 now, tends to be age appropriately coordinated.  She often catches herself if she trips while running too fast though, and any 'accidents' she has been involved in have either been the result of her older sister being oblivious, or her mother displaying large amounts of grace as she slips on the ice and sends her flying through the air to the asphalt or cement below.  Yes that happened twice.

I guess it is inevitable that one out of four would inherit my coordination and tendency to attract accidents.  That child is my third. She is 6 years old, and if she continues on the path her mother took, she will end up a fine upstanding young lady. If she makes it past age 10.

When I was a kid, if it was going to cause lots of pain or blood, I was the one that got it.  I got attacked by a feral cat, took off many layers of skin on my elbow in a bike accident (I still have a significant scar), had an emergency appendectomy, got my thumb closed in the hinge side of a bedroom door during hide and seek (yes it was broken, and yes it hurt...a lot),  stepped into snow boots that were filled with staples, got 'bounced' into a salamander cage that split my head open and bled profusely (actually a very funny story for another blog someday), got thrown off the top bunk and got my ear ripped part way off as I landed on the sharp ear of a piggy bank below, and got a pick up stick shoved into my left eardrum...which has never really worked right ever since.  Those are just off the top of my head, and I am sure I could think of more. Despite my propensity for attracting accidents and scars, I was a fairly successful athlete in school....after I outgrew my knock knee'd skinny legs.

Anna, being only 6 years old, is well on her way to carrying on my legacy.  Though there is hope for her in her teenage years, she will still not be completely out of the woods as, like I mentioned before, I tend to be involved in very embarrassing clumsy accidents even still.

Though she has not yet topped my list, so far in her short life Anna has: Crashed head first into the corner of the kitchen cabinets, creating a 'dent' in her forehead that can still be identified if you look closely because anytime she hits her head, she hits it in the same exact spot.  She has multiple unexplained bruises on her legs, has to get spacers for her mouth because her thumb has made the palate misshapen, is ALWAYS falling down, can NOT do jumping jacks (I really must get that on video, it never fails to produce laughter for spectators), is almost ALWAYS the brunt of my second child's flailing extremities, managed to break a snow globe with her head while dusting, and today, severely cut her foot on a stray shard of glass from said snow globe while attempting to get dressed for school.  We aren't talking about a tiny little flesh wound.  No. This severed some horrible little major vein on the ball of her foot that bled exceedingly great amounts of blood all over the jacket on the floor beneath her and all over her blue jeans. And her hands. And some emergency toilet paper. And about 5 paper towels.

Thankfully it stopped bleeding with painful pressure, and I was able to bandage it with Neosporin and large band aids, but I have a feeling too much jumping around will cause it to reopen and be a problem.  I am now going to the school to check on her and see if there is any cause for further alarm.  Too bad my stomach just settled from the first round of bandaging....