Kellen's rough day

My morning started with a jolt at 5:30 am as I was awakened by the sound of Kellen screaming from down the hall. Matt is on a 24 turned 36-hour shift, so it's Mommy to the rescue. As I enter his room I see him (as much as you can see someone with all of the lights still turned off) at the door, screaming "Mommy" with his arms stretched up to me. As I bend down to pick him up I ask him what's wrong (one day he'll be able to answer that question and I am not going to know what to do) and then ask him if he is scared. "Yes" comes the quiet reply, as he digs his face into my neck, "Lay down Mommy." So off to mommy's bed we go, making sure that blanket and Big Bird come with us. Kellen never did go back to sleep, but laid next to me, occasionally leaning over to give me a kiss or play with my hair. The sweetest thing was his kiss-sequence and ensuing comment. "Kiss Mommy." he says, then proceeds to give me a kiss on the lips. "Kiss nose." comes next, followed by "Kiss hair." Then he keeps kissing my hair over and over and I hear him whisper, "Kellen like kiss Mommy hair." I hope and pray that he never loses that sweet quality. He shows compassion and empathy well beyond that of a two-year old, at least most of the time anyway.

So the morning has begun, albeit a little earlier than normal. As I get ready to get a shower, Kellen decides that a shower for him is a must-have this morning. I'll spare you the details except to ask you to think about how difficult it is to actually shower and hold a two-year old at the same time...but I did learn that it's possible, sort of. Daddy makes it home from work before we leave and has some fun-time with Kellen. Then it's off to school and work for Kellen and I.

Let me begin this next sequence of events by stating, for the record, that Kellen LOVES his day care. He talks about his friends and teachers and about half of the time doesn't actually want to leave to come home. However, over the past couple of weeks he's started a "More hug" thing as I'm trying to leave day care to go to work. And it isn't as if it's more hugs all in a row...we're talking a hug, Kellen goes to play, then when he sees that I'm actually leaving, "More hugs." comes out of my sweet little angel's mouth. When he does this, I feel like I need to add a notch to the guilt-factor belt for being a working-mom. Anyway, after 5-6 "more hugs" this morning (mind you this is after our normal good-byes), I told him that I needed to leave to go to work and reached for the door to his classroom. When he sees that I am leaving, he runs toward the door and, you guessed it, falls into it - the corner of it - and cuts the left side of his nose and mouth. Poor guy! And, of course, this would happen the day after he falls on concrete at the school playground, bruising much of the left side of his face, so now it just makes you hurt to look at him and his most current boo-boo's. But, tomorrow is a new day.