Moksha - It reminds me of that movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which I highly recommend, BTW). If only that could work, I know the two memories I would choose.

Simon - A joke about not dropping his beer flashed through my mind while writing this post, but I let it go on up to Canada. Thanks for catching it.

You should have lots of fun with two boys running, jumping, climbing, and swinging sharp things!

Amy - I tend to overreact a little, but not usually at the actual scene. I freak out later where Benjamin can’t see or hear me.

Charles - No doubt. I don’t remember falling a lot, though. I think you did that more than I did, because you were a bit more of a daredevil. We both were fairly coordinated, and that helped. Even though we flew through the air on various vehicles, motorized and not, we both had a pretty good idea what we should and shouldn’t do. After years of listening to stories from friends (and witnessing some of their shenanigans firsthand), obviously judgment goes a long way toward injury prevention.

My face did take some punishment thanks to your accurate batting. Maybe that’s why my nose is not quite right.

If that had been LC, he would have somehow managed to bounce his face off of something. It doesn’t seem to matter what we do, he still manages to hit his face everytime something happens. His latest was rolling backwards off the culvert on his bike…busted lip, scraped nose. Not a scratch anywhere else. I think he may need a full-face helmet!

Markus….It’s kinda like how I used to beg for an hour for you to just come throw me three pitches, and inevitably I would line one back at your grill.

I never understood that. I never hit a pitcher in all my years of baseball, and I never hit any of my other friends with comebackers.

Maybe it had something to do with the target size?

There you go Simon. I couldn’t resist. Sorry Mark.

The scare though, that’s tough. I know it as a two-pronged sharp stick of fear in my heart. One prong for the fear of injury, maiming or sickeningly painful death inflicted upon my child; and another prong at my total inability to do anything about it but watch helplessly.

I also think it’s important at that stage not to overreact, and just let the wee one cope as best as possible so that the parents’ fears don’t get pushed onto the kids.

I can only imagine the terror of that moment. I’ve never ben there to see Norah tumble down the steps, but Moonshot was once. Norah barely noticed, but my wife was traumatized for days.

I remember once, a couple years ago, trying to hurd the animals into the basement during a tornado warning here in St Charles. Two cats in my arms and a tiny puppy Arlo in front of me just starting the top step down. He opted to turn around at that moment, so I blocked him with my foot and he over-corrected and tumbled backward down the steps. Actual bouncing like some sick and twisted happy-fun ball. He was fine, but I still can’t get that image out of my head.

So, I’m preparing myself as best as I can for the inevitable injuries that I will helplessly watch Norah receive. It’s one of the scarier parts of parenting, I think.

Nobody is Superman. We’re only Dads, and never fear, you ARE a good one.