Unfair Advantage

I used to feel guilty that my small frame (you like how I just threw that compliment in for myself?) caused Avery to suffer from a decidedly wonky head. Putting her in a helmet only added to the guilt, and added a healthy dose of defensive-mom-mode to it (people can be quite judgey when they see a baby in a helmet). I have spent many a breath apologizing to Avery for putting her through this, and assuring her that her only knowledge of it will be through photos, not memory. And then I noticed something...

Avery has become indestructible. She does not understand the concept of pain. When she learned to go from sitting to crawling, her method was to literally dive, headfirst, at the ground. She runs into anything she can headfirst, doesn't even bat an eye. She falls from standing straight to her head, and keeps right on going as if nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Lauren has a lovely collection of bruises on her forehead to show for her much more limited activity, and it's all my fault...I should have smashed her head too!

So, while Avery gets to go through arguably the most clumsy phase a human goes through with her own personal childproofing system strapped to her head, I've resorted to much more low-tech methods to try and give Lauren some of the same advantages: Foam packing paper around the sharpest corners she encounters, and a little more hovering around her to try and catch some of the nastier spills.

Makes me wonder which one will need therapy...Avery, for having to wear a helmet? Or Lauren, because we gave her sister the unfair advantage of the helmet. Damn you, Guilt...damn you!!

Checking out Mommy's handiwork.

Avery doubling up on protection.