Everything's a competition

N seems determined to outdo his brother in just about everything he can possibly do.  He "cooked" longer, was born bigger, eats more, grows faster, etc etc.  I'd have to go back and see who got the first tooth sooner and all that, but he probably got that sooner, too, knowing him.  So I guess I shouldn't really be surprised that yesterday he decided to beat out his brother in yet another area...eye injuries requiring a trip to the emergency room.

When Z was about 10 months old, he slipped while crawling on the bed and banged his head on the bedside table.  He didn't seem too upset about it, and it wasn't bleeding THAT much, but the pediatrician said better safe than sorry when it comes to eye injuries.

Z's flesh wound:


Not all that scary, right?  Not that close to the eye, obviously not going to bleed for hours, no big deal.  We went to the ER (though M would quickly point out that it's an emergency DEPARTMENT, not just room, but I digress...), they looked it over and decided that there was no injury to the eye and no stitches would be required.  Home we went with some eye-safe antibiotic cream and a bandaid, and Z had a lovely shiner for a couple days.  No big deal!

But like I said, N has to one-up his brother whenever possible.

N's flesh wound at the age of just over 9 months:


Much more alarming!  N was crawling on the floor in his room, and decided to try pulling up on my leg where I was sitting in the glider chair.  I wasn't looking right at him so I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he slipped and went face first into the frame of the chair.  Screamed bloody murder! At first I thought he just had a scratch on the side of his head (just outside the picture), but after a minute or two the blood started welling up...and it was clearly much closer to the eye than Z's had been.  Since I couldn't tell whether the eyelid had been breached, off to the ED we went!  But in keeping with his brother's legacy, it was determined that there was no damage to the eye (or eyelid) and no stitches would be needed.  After charming all the nurses/med students/residents/attendings (he was a busy boy!), home we went with some eye-safe antibiotic cream (but no bandaid, that wouldn't have worked too well).

I tell you, these boys are going to turn my hair grey by the time I'm 35 at the rate they're going!