There's a first time for everything...

...even our first black eye!

When the little guy started walking 3 months ago, I got used to the idea that his little cute head would be covered with bumps and cuts! I don't think I was prepared for the whole black eye thing...at least not until middle school! He was not involved in some massive fist fight defending my honor...no, not this time. Here's how it happened:

Hubby Greg and I had just begun to clean out Maria's room. Over the past three years, this room had become not only a guest room, but our storage space since we were without a basement. My dad had come over and helped Greg move my antique furniture out and to the storage unit. My mom and I had just gotten home from the bookstore, and we were off to give the little man a bath. As the water was running, I let Greg explore Maria's room...there wasn't anything in there that was harmful...really just a bunch of crap we had to go through!

On his exploration, he found a crucifix I had received after high school. This crucifix was a standing one and made of a nicer plastic. Greg picked Jesus up and held him with both hands straight in front of him and began processing our Lord around the upstairs! He was ADORABLE!! Future priest, perhaps??? He would not let Jesus go, and into the bathroom he went with Jesus all ready for bath time. I was in no mood for a fussy baby, so I let him hold on to Jesus as I undressed him. He had Jesus tightly in his hands, and tripped...Jesus hit the tub, Greg hit Jesus...right on his eye!!!! That's right...the only part of Jesus that was remotely sharp was His hand, nailed to the cross...and that hand, that saved all of man kind punched my baby in the face! (Okay, that was a dramatic statement!) Naturally, I ripped Jesus out of Greg's hand, as he SCREAMED!! He screamed and screamed and screamed. At this point, I had not realized the damage that was done, and put Greg in the tub with his toys to try and distract him from his pain.

After being in the tub for a few moments, I noticed something! "OH MY GOSH...HIS EYE is BLEEEEDDDING!!!!!!!!!" I was freaking out!!! Thank goodness my mom was there. In the midst of this discovery, I was ready to take him out of the tub, wrap in a towel, and head to the ER!! I was sick to my stomach and felt like the worse mother in the world. My poor baby was bleeding...from his EYE!!!!!!! Upon further inspection (from my mom because I was a mess) we discovered his eye lid was cut (on top, and a smaller cut below his eye). My mom explained that the ER would offer little help to me...she was right...no need to visit the ER. PS - At this time, Greg was super happy and enjoying bath time!

I bathed him and got him ready for bed...still feeling very guilty about his pathetic looking face that was still oozing blood!! I rocked him to sleep, cleaned up the dried blood...and then took this picture!

The purple thing on the eye lid is the cut from that hand of Jesus. You can also see the smaller cut below his eye!

Now as expected, the next day it began to bruise. I picked him up from his crib that morning and first noticed a small amount of dried blood on his sheet! My poor baby was bleeding in his sleep! :-(

These pictures were taken at breakfast...so pathetic!

These morning pictures really do not do justice to what it looked like. Since the top of the eyelid was what was really bad, most of the damage was hidden when his eyes were open!!

And that's that...our first black eye. Nothing heroic...just some innocent processing with Jesus gone bad!!