Cerin Amroth

Check out this picture.

Can you tell whether that’s Ella or Dominic? What’s your guess?

UPDATE: The answer is in the comments now.

Today, given the choice of what to watch on TV while we were working on supper, Ella chose . . .

. . . not The Incredibles, but the “Making Of” documentary in the bonus material on the Incredibles DVD. I think we must have watched part of it at some point in the past, though I don’t recall when. This time she watched the whole thing attentively, pausing the DVD in order to examine the action figures on the shelf behind John Lasseter when he was being interviewed.

I’m sure plenty of people would find her choice bizarre, and only a tiny number of people would find it a reason to be particularly proud or her. I belong to the latter group.

I have added new photos to the site. They include pictures from the spring fair at Ella’s preschool this past Saturday.

Here is the evidence for the aforementioned vertical and horizontal bruises. But I’m afraid the effect has been lost. Thursday night, the horizontal bruise had a thick scab on it that looked like it was going to be around for days if not weeks. Friday morning it was faded away and the bulge was half the size. The kid has a healing factor to rival Wolverine’s, I swear.

Cautious Ella was no preparation for raising a boy who has no fear.  In the past four months or so, Dominic has had one black-and-blue mark or another, usually on his forehead, more often than he has not.  This past Saturday he tumbled off a couch at a coffee shop and banged his forehead on the coffee table on the way down.  The resulting goose egg was tremendous, with a red horizontal line in the middle that didn’t quite break the skin.  It was scary-looking enough that we called the pediatrician, who talked me down by explaining that really, where else does the swelling have to go if it’s on the forehead, and that the real things to be worried about are signs of headaches or vomiting or the like.  And of course he was fine ten minutes later, but the bruise still looks pretty impressive days afterward.

Usually he waits until one bruise has faded completely before he gets to work on his next one; not so today.  While trying to navigate through the toy-strewn floor at maximum speed, he tripped, fell forward, and banged his head on a chair leg.  It doesn’t look anywhere near as bad, but still, he’s going to have a nifty vertical bruise right next to the healing horizontal one.  And I forgot to mention the slight red welt on his cheek from scraping against something when he clambered off our bed.

Many parents I bump into seem to understand the situation immediately when they see Dominic.  “Oh my God, mine was just like that at his age,” said one random mother to me on the street yesterday.  When we find ourselves in line at the grocery store in front of someone from Child Protective Services, let’s hope they have kids.