Kisses, Knives, and Pixie Dust

Isn't it amazing how a kiss can cure all?  Well, when you're two anyway.  Mozart was messing around this morning ~ running, falling on purpose, and doing it all over again.  He thought it hysterical.  Until he accidentally on purpose fell on his face.  It was tragic.  Real pain, as evidenced by a real cry, not the fake one that he pulls out for attention.  I gave it a minute (I find that if I give it just a little time before I kiss it better, the physical pain has dissipated enough to allow the psychological healing to take over) and asked him does he need a kiss.  A teary, "I do," and he ran over to be mended.  Three kisses on his chin and bottom lip and he says, "Thank-you Mama," and is off playing again.

I recently read an article where a woman listed off a bunch of moms admissions of failures, or rather, near-misses with their children.  Most of them had to do with car seat mishaps - either they forgot to buckle the kid in, or it wasn't clicked into the base, etc.  And all I could think of was The Knife Incident.

So Mozart didn't crawl properly, really, until after he started walking.  At first I think it was difficult for him then perhaps he was just lazy about getting his belly off the ground, but by the time he had actually learned to crawl with his bum up, he'd figured out that he could get from point A to point B with a toy or two if he had his hands free - and so he Commando Crawled.  Having been through Basic Training and the inevitable Obstacle Course, I can truly say that it takes, much, MUCH more effort to do this than to hike yourself up to your knees and be on your way.  Nonetheless.  That is what he did.

So picture this now. At about 10 months old, we are relaxing after we all got home.  TW and I were both on the couch, and Mozart playing on the floor next to us in the kid-safe space.  We were each in our own little world for a bit before the next flurry of dinner-making and evening routine started.  I don't know what I was doing in my own little world, but when I noticed he moved from my sight I checked to see all was well.  He was playing with a collection of cloth grocery bags and nothing else was around, so all was good.  Then, two minutes later, I see the child making his way across the floor, Commando Style with a STEAK KNIFE in hand!!!  

He was fine, amazingly, as he was holding the knife by the blade.  Apparently TW's lunch bag was with the grocery bags - Heaven only knows why - with the flatware she brings back and forth to work, and he was such a clever little devil that he un-Velcro'd it to access the goods.

I think I will forever have that image of him seared into my mind.

There have been a couple incidences like this.  I'm sure there are with most kids.  And when they are over we look back and thank whatever magic was responsible for keeping them safe!  Did I mention a couple weeks ago that Mozart started asking for pixie dust?  Sometimes he would ask, but sometimes he would demand.  We had no idea what he was talking about.  Seriously. No clue.  Then he started referring to watching pixie dust, so I figured it was a cartoon or something that he'd been exposed to at daycare.   We could not figure it out.  Until yesterday. Pixie Dust is apparently Teletubbies.  I did the happy dance because he was no longer distraught (he did have to pull out his Big Boy Voice in order to actually watch the video).  I still don't know what magic protects him from parenting mistakes and bodily injury, but for now the mystery of the pixie dust is solved.