Mislabeled?

I know that they say you shouldn't label your children. Something about living up to (or down to) expectations. I agree with that, in theory. However, when you have 2 children, one of whom runs everywhere, trips over everything and hesitates at nothing, and the other who walks cautiously, uses handrails always and doesn't just look before she leaps but requires hand holding to take a step, it isn't too hard to say one is wild and one is cautious. Not to say so would be a bit... stupid.

Anyways. As any sometime blog reader can tell you, Hannah is our wild one and Abby our cautious one. Which makes the following story funny/ironic.

Tuesday night, while Kevin was grilling our chicken outside, Abby and Hannah were playing in the backyard. Abby has, for a few months now, loved sitting in any sort of chair, especially one her size. Our backyard has a few yard chairs for her to choose from, all the perfect size for her cute self. Normally, she has no issue getting in or out, being the type not to try something before she can do it (hence, the late walker who never fell). Well, of course, while on the pavement, Abby fell. Face first, into the pavement, catching the fall on her face, chin specifically. Put two teeth far into her lip, although not quite through (my guess is that her short little teeth just weren't big enough to go all the way through), scraped up her chin pretty good, not that you could tell with all the blood covering her from her lip. I know mouths bleed a lot, but this was really something. Two hours later when her lip was still bleeding quite a bit and we got a good look at the size of the gash, I sent Kevin off to the ER while I put Hannah to bed (shouldn't come as a surprise which parent deals with blood better). Good news -- an otter pop did wonders for the bleeding and helped the swelling go down, stitches were not required (which is very good because of the location of it would need more than just strong arms holding her down), and Abby made friends with the night nurses. Kevin got to come home with a squirter thing to clean out the gaping whole after eating, which, surprisingly, Abby likes to do after meals. Bad news -- our kid looks beat up, her fat lip detracts from her adorable smile and the injured area looks awful, even days later. Kevin, after explaining how this was her second ER trip in a short amount of time (first was a concussion from earlier in the spring) got asked by the doctor if she was our wild one, replied sadly "no, she's our cautious one."

It does seem odd that Abby has now surpassed Hannah's total of ER trips, when she is almost always free of scabs or bruises while Hannah, even at 4, is constantly covered (bath time is like a discovery time for her -- "oh, I wonder when I got that one?!"). My only thought is that although Abby rarely gets hurt, when she does she does it spectacularly. Or she just doesn't bounce as well as Hannah.Notice the difference -- one is free from scabs/bruises, the other isn't.... of course, Hannah's hair is hiding her two main war injuries -- a scar from stitches and a crescent ridge which resulted in a skull x-rays.