A Broken, Bloodied & Bruised Baby Berkeley

Here are some before and after shots of my sweet pea. The pics above were taken 3 days before her unfortunate encounter with a very wild and obnoxious pug. I was able to capture her youthful joy, laughter and innocence before it was shattered. No, I'm "kind of" kidding. I know it was an accident and I know it could have happened anytime or anywhere. I also know Sterling could have been running full speed and bumped into her. The fact that we were not huge pug fans before all this happened just makes it 100 times worse. We just don't want her around him ever again. I am working on forgiving him and I pray that God will help me to do so every day. My anger slowly fades with each passing day. I know God loves all creatures great and small, but I am fairly certain even He is irritated with Oscar right now :) I told Thomas that Oscar had better run for his life the next time I see him. Perhaps eventually I will be able to dwell in the same room with him without committing any acts of violence. The key word here is "perhaps." Someday we will laugh about this and about how we totally over reacted, but right now I am still seething. I think some of my cheesiness rubbed off on Jerry while he was living with us because when he saw her he said "Oh my, she has an Oscar." Pretty cheesy, but funny, huh?

I am taking her in to get her stitches out today at 1:30. Oh, what fun! She has actually been doing great and it's amazing how resilient children are. Her spirits are high and she continues to make us laugh every day. She has a new nick name: we now call her "Stitch." Or, baby "Frank" since Amanda thought she looked like a little mini Frankenstein! Just this morning she was standing up in her crib waiting for me to come in and get her and when I opened her door she went to step up on her bumper and slipped and hit her chin on the railing. The inside of her lip got a little cut and started bleeding and she cried for just a second. My poor little girl, at this point I am praying she lives to celebrate her 2nd birthday.

I have always heard of the Mother Bear Instinct that moms have when it comes to their kids, but I never realized how protective you really get. My claws came out and they are ever so slowly receding. I'm not the kind of mom that would get upset if someone told my kids "no" or to stop doing something they weren't supposed to, but when it comes to them being senselessly hurt I will not tolerate it. I just figure, it is my job in life to protect them because if I don't, who else will? Nobody. That's who. Anyway, that's all I have to say about that :) I'm done ranting and raving now!!!