Hurricane Ella

So if anyone has ever followed my photography blog, they've read about Ella. About how everything about her is brute force. Everywhere she goes, everything she does, is like watching a bull in a china shop. Seriously...the child does NOT know the meaning of the word "careful." And it's not because she's naughty or anything, she just does everything at 100% (maybe more) and putting that much energy into every movement (and trying to contain it) is probably about as easy as containing a huricane.

She is now sporting a nice purpley-yellow eye. It was a black eye....but now it's even prettier. :) Last week I put the stocking up - they hang from those metal hook things - the ones that look like bookends but hang over the edge of a mantel or shelf. You know the ones. :) Well, I was VERY explicit when I told the kids what would happen to them if they pulled them down - no, not only what I was going to them (haha) but also what could happen to them if they got hurt from it. I mentioned getting knocked outk, bashed in the head, breaking your nose, smashing a toe...I forgot to include trying to blind yourself.

yes, Ella almost blinded herself. :) I heard a scream (nothing abnormal though so I ignored it) and then there was some crying. (Again, nothing out of the ordinary...I usually wait for the crying party to come find me before I decide if it is serious or not.) Micah came running out shouting "Ella did it! Not me!" : haha - that kid....he cracks me up. I asked him what she did and he said she plled on the stocking, and it had fallen down. I asked him why she was crying and he said it was probably because she knew she was in trouble since she'd busted the table. He hadn't stayed around long enough to see what had REALLY happened though.

A few seconds later, Ella shows up at my elbow, crying. I, not lookig at her, say, "Ella . . . what happened honey?" She tells me she pulled on the stocking. And that she's sorry. I turn to look at her and guess what I find?? A blood-covered Ella. Yes, the left side of her faceher face, from her eye down is dripping in blood. The front of her shirt? Covered in blood. Her left hand? Bright red, dripping everywhere. The left sleeve is soaked in blood up to her forearm....Where is it all coming from? I couldn't tell.

I sort of gasped and said - OH MY GOODNESS! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!? - and that's when she realized her hand was bleeding...apparently she hadn't realized it before?? Wierd. :) So Ella starts hyperventilating and shrieking something about how she's BLEEEEEEEDING and I pick her up and run for the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for stopping to hug and calm them down but the girl was dripping blood all over my carpet! :)

After a minute or two of gently wiping blood off of her with a warm washcloth (and searching for a massive open wound) I find a small gash under her eye and a TINY spot on her hand. HOW ON EARTH that managed to produce so much blood, I'll never know. After a spiderman bandaid was applied to her hand (Spiderman heals all hurts in our house currently) and another spiderman bandaid was put under her eye (it didn' DO anything, but it did look AWESOME) we sat down to snuggle and relieve the tragedy. Yes, she'd pulled on the stocking and yes, it had come down and hit her in the face JUST below her eye and then again on her hand. It hit AGAIN on the wood below hard enough to take out a good chunk of wood off the table - which means it HAD to have hit her face & hand pretty hard. Poor kid.

Oh - and the funniest part? I was trying to calm her down and so I said, "Ella...do you know whatyou're going to ge??" She probably thought I was going to give her some sort of present or something...so she sniffed up a lot of snot and said hopefully, "What mama?" I said very happily, "A black eye!" That resulted in even MORE shrieking and tears - she didn't know what a black eye was but she was pretty sure she didn't want any part of it.

I'll share some pictures of poor banged up Ella a little later....