When it came to walking, he was practically running from the beginning. Bumps in the sidewalk don’t deter him, nor do scrapes on the knees for long. Kai wants to get in the trenches with the best of him and, whatever the big kids are doing, he isn’t far behind.
I think the daredevil/adventurer is part nature/part youngest of three/part boy. When you have two older siblings, you’re a bit like a guinea pig while they try to figure out what gentle really means and poke and prod at the new arrival. Luckily, Ella and Ezra generally dote on their little brother, but they’ve definitely taught him to roll with the punches.
The amazing thing about Kai – he isn’t easily deterred. For example, as I typed the last paragraph, he bumped his head against the hard back of the couch. I went to comfort him, gradually moving the cushion up as I did. He wanted about two seconds of cuddles before pushing against me to get back to his previous activity. I love his resilience, but sometimes it makes me crazy.
Our new town home is part of a cute little community with a grassy area in the middle. We are lucky to have an end unit with windows and exits right by this area. The kids happily ride their bikes around the sidewalks and play all around. Kai, however, is currently obsessed with going up and down. There’s a small ramp area into the parking lot down a ways and he can not resist running toward it, glancing behind him to see if you’re following, waiting on the chase, then rushing down it.
His love of up, but less firm grasp of how to get down, got him in trouble last night. For the first time ever, he climbed up the bunk bed ladder to reach his older brother. Unfortunately, mom and dad were downstairs when he decided to make the climb. We heard a crash, then a scream, then silence. The silence is the worst.
Dad rushed up and brought him down, initially thinking no big deal. Then we saw the blood beneath his lip. He’d bit clear through it. I immediately thought “emergency room” and went to ask the neighbors to sit with our big kids. Luckily, one of our neighbors is a former army medic and nurse in training. He inspected the cut (which stopped bleeding fairly quickly), cleaned it, and told us to keep it clean and it should heal just fine.
It didn’t take long for Kai to begin running and laughing soon after his fall. Crazy kid. Thank goodness, though!
Tim removed the bottom rung from the ladder. We thought we were in the clear. When Kai and I went into the bedroom this morning to greet Ezra, though, Kai went straight to the ladder. He contemplated the missing rung for a moment, put his legs up a little higher, and climbed up again, grinning proudly at me from the top.
*sigh*
Yikes! Glad it seems like it’s going to heal okay on it’s own. He really IS a little daredevil!