Ren's Fall / Playing Outside

After coming home I took Ren upstairs with me and put him on the bed. He likes to be with me when I first get home and will cry if I go out of view right away. While I was changing into jeans Ren crawled his way to the edge of the bed and went right over head first. He fell off the bed about a foot and landed on his forehead. I think it hurt me more than him but he did cry quite a bit. I had images of spinal damage shoot thru me and was momentarily terrified but fingers and legs were all in good working order and there was not even a lump to show for it.

despite all the sticking and poking he got for having a high fever four days after he was born, I think he has generally experienced very little trauma in general. Since he sleeps together with us and not in a crib he never has never been left to cry himself to sleep and doesn't ever have to cry for any extended time before he is attended to. It seems the quickest way to calm him down is taking him outside. I wonder if all babies are as fond of the outside as he is.

Last week we took him out in the lawn to play in grass for the first time. He was pretty preoccupied with eating everything growing up taller than the grass. Aya seemed a little worried about it but she soon realized that he generally just puts stuff in his mouth then spits it out. He seems to like crawling on all fours thru the grass and doesn't mind you walking away form him like he does in the house. On the second day of trying this we encountered the neighborhood Beagle who Ren is always very happy to see. He was very,very happy at the idea of being free to crawl over to and touch the beagle though it is hard to tell what the beagle thought of Ren. Of course it was not long before getting a hold of the beagle's tail was main objective.

It seems the grass here (in "The Bluegrass") is a lot more coarse than it is where I grew up in Upstate New York's "Central Leather-stocking" region. I had all kinds of little cuts on my arms after rolling around a couple of times on the ground. Despite the socks and jeans we put him in the second day of outside exploration in the grass left Ren a little worse for wear. He had some scratches on his face. I am pretty worried about the biting bugs in the grass here too. In New York you could see anything that might cause you lots of pain like bees, wasps or caterpillars but my experience in Tennessee has left me with bites and bumps that lead me to be more wary of the ground bugs.

A friend who I have known since college and spent lots of time together with in Japan is visiting us today for about a week. His wife is also Japanese and they also have a baby that is a month older than Ren, Rachel now 10 months old. I'm excited to see my friend and his wife who I know well too but most of all I am curious to see how Ren and Rachel interact. Since he stays with Aya and has never been to Day Care, Ren has never really been around other babies his size and never been within touching distance. I hope he doesn't hurt her too much.