face plant

Yesterday I made it out to our small front garden to do some spring cleaning. I took down last year's seed heads that fed the birds who stuck around over the winter, and cleared away the old leaves, and dug out some baby weeds. I studied the tiny new shoots coming up and admired the purplish backside of the bloodroot's leaves wrapped tightly around their stems until they reach full height of about six inches and they unfurl them in their irregular, flat hand-like glory.

I was nearly finished that bed when Swee'pea came out, the first time we've really let him walk around outside. It's hard to believe it's been just about a month since he took his very first steps ever, and now he's an expert. Well, almost. He toddled into the garden with its very uneven soil. My first thought was, "Nooooo! My baby plants!" then as he lost his footing it was, "Noooo! My baby!" But it was like I was moving through molasses. He did a total face plant just in front of the mounds of new columbine, thankfully several inches from introducing his teeth or nose to the concrete edge of our porch. But the poor little guy had dirt in his eye.

We wiped him up but didn't know how to get at the dirt IN his eye. We called telehealth to see if it would work itself out or whether we should begin a campaign to remove it. After about 20 minutes of questions, they finally said we should really flush it out with tepid water, so we tried. Swee'pea didn't like it but eventually it worked, and it appears that there is no lasting damage. Unlike poor little Miss M.