Come up with a smiling face,
It's nothing against you to fall down flat
But to lie there -- that's a disgrace.”

Edmund Vance

I am so hoping that no one from Child Services comes knocking at my door after some stranger sees how beat-up my poor girlie is right now. But I never laid a hand on her, of course, it was mostly the sidewalk. And the deck. And a tree.

Maeve is at an age where she wants to go FAST and take chances. It's a prelude to the teenage years, I imagine, only no vehicles are involved. And I am there to mitigate the scary choices she makes at times on the playground, particularly climbing things she is not yet capable of climbing. But I can't stop her from running, and when she does, she sometimes makes a closer acquaintance with the pavement.

So far this spring she has skinned her elbow, both knees, and gotten a scratch on her face, all within the last three weeks. We keep talking about being careful when she runs, and I have totally ceased to let her wear her slightly-too-big sneakers outside where she may trip on them. But, darn it all, I can't possibly keep her away from every little thing she could run into/trip on/fall over next to.

So if you see Maeve running around, grinning like a fool, with a bunch of road rash on her once-perfect baby skin, just know that she's having the time of her life, and doing important gravity/friction/traction experiments with her body.