Now that Annie is three feet tall, we have reached a dangerous spot. Mike says the dangerous spot is that she’s going to be taller than me in just a few years (haha, sooooo funny). She seemed to grow almost overnight, so she just does not know how to deal with all of her height.
The worst thing is when she hits her head. She used to be able walk right underneath the counter on the kitchen island, but yesterday she was walking over to where I was and decided to take the scenic route under the counter. Before I could stop her, she slammed her head into the side of the island. Oh the screaming and the drama! She kept shooting daggers at the counter, as if it was a dirty trick and the counter had gotten smaller instead of her getting bigger.
I’m going to make her wear this helmet forever.
She has also realized that with her longer arms she can reach onto counters and grab things her lazy parents didn’t put away (or put farther from the edge). Sometimes it’s something benign like a hair brush or a book. But other times it’s toothpaste, or a pen, or deodorant. Occasionally she’ll run over to one of us to show us her new prize, or sometimes we’re lucky enough to discover it smashed onto the wall or floor. Yaaaay.
There are two drawers in our kitchen that we don’t have child locks on. Partly because we ran out of child locks, and partly because we don’t keep anything harmful in them. Annie is now tall enough to look into the drawers. Which is all well and good, except the stuff we keep in there are DVD cases, a can opener, twist ties, etc. She’ll come over to us with an ABC DVD and the can opener and say, “Rigby’s hungry! Watch ABCs?”
All joking aside, though, the counter vs head situation is getting a little out of control. She hit her head seven freaking times yesterday! I jokingly put her bike helmet on her yesterday and let her run around the house with that on, but the little fashionista won’t stand for wearing the helmet (or anything, really) for more than ten minutes.
I am now accepting bets for how many times she’ll run into the counter before she learns that the counter doesn’t move. She’s like a tiny drunk person looking to pick a fight.
Aubrey says:
My 3 year old does this stuff all the time. I do this stuff all the time. Thinking I am short enough that I won’t bash my head on the open cabinet door..Only I am not. I bump my head a lot. Hey! Can I borrow Annie’s helmet? I can’t find one quite that cute.
Lauren says:
OMG, that helmet is the best, I am so glad you’re making her wear it forever.
Jennifer says:
She is so cute! It’s exhausting though isn’t it? Words of wisdom….watch out walking in parking lots. She WILL run into side mirrors.
Kristin says:
Just wait until she discovers that step stools (especially mommy’s stool) can be moved and that if she’s really, really quiet that she can do it without you hearing. That is a truly terrifying moment. Can you tell I’ve had that experience?
Becky Campbell says:
Rubber, Safety First corner protector/covers!;) Of course, she’ll need to learn to watch where she’s going, but I’d hate for her to lose an eye or get stitches in the meantime!;)
Becky Campbell says:
http://www.safety1st.com/usa/eng/Products/Home-Safety/Home-Safety/Details/2003-48399-ProGrade-Clearly-Soft-Corner-Guards
They also have foam ones…:)
Heather says:
The corners are all round and big, so he isn’t in danger or poking anything out!
Becky Campbell says:
Ahh…my bad!:(
Megan says:
I whacked my head on the corner of my bathroom cabinet a few weeks ago. Some of us never outgrow it.
Brandon says:
My 4 year old son love biking and biking and I am quite afraid if he got fall… This helmet is suitable solution for that in order to feel free in watching my son enjoying it way…
Linn says:
When my son was that age he always had a bruise somewhere on his forehead. He’s 10 now and a good student so there was no permanent damage.
Melissa says:
We put these on the corners of all our counters (including the island).
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?sku=14880860&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=14880860&zmam=77312802&zmas=1&zmac=1&zmap=14880860
They help considerably, though our guy still gives the counter a very dirty look!
Julie says:
We put that fireplace padding stuff on the underside of the corners of our island counter for the same reason with our oldest. We have bar stools there now, so I hope we won’t have to do it again for our youngest!
Bella says:
Maybe you can put chalk or tape lines on the floor for a few weeks to mark off where she should not cross so she doesn’t hit her head? She’s more likely to look down on the floor than lift her head to see the counter.
My 3 year old got a nasty cut on her forehead from running into a drinking fountain which was the type you can roll a wheelchair under. It was made of concrete with little pebbles pressed into it and she needed to get her cut glued (instead of stitches). They just don’t pay attention to what is above their eyes.
Laura says:
Not sure what your counter edge looks like but this is what my parents did. Their counter top extends out past the cupboards so there is an overhang of countertop that my 3 yo just kept walking right into. They cut a length of pool noodle the length of the end of the counter, cut a slit in it and slid it onto the counter end. Works like a charm
Susannah says:
Our daughter always whacked her head into the side-view mirror on the car.
Heidi says:
we have awful counters for heads too. I use the fireplace rubber liners for them. you can minipulate them on rounded corners. we get holes in the head around here at this age. As long as she will leave them on and not rip them down and hang her plastic toys fom the sticky parts *no that I have an sort of experiance with this*snort* they really do the trick for the head bashing age.
Daddy Dan says:
She’s tall enough to ride the Matterhorn now!
Ally says:
When my oldest started doing this with extreme commitment to bruising (at 2 1/2), he told his daycare class that he “got hit in the head with a bar.”
Some further explanation was required.
Lora says:
Just wait until she is at the height where she hits her head on the side mirrors on cars. All three of my children went thru that stage. We couldn’t walk thur a parking lot without one of them getting hurt by a side mirror. Luckily, they quickly outgrow that stage too.
Shannon says:
Oh Yikes! I remember that age…. Dallas, my daughter was the worst about it. Far worse than any of the three boys! “Bee careful” Har har.
Babbalou says:
My 24-yr old son still has a scar on his forehead where he ran into thorns on a climbing rose bush head on. It was growing around a sidewalk tree, and he started running, turned back to say something to me and when I yelled at him to look in the direction he was running, he turned around just in time to hit the tree and rosebush directly. Sigh. Now it’s me running into things because with my bifocals, my peripheral vision is crap. I actually ran into a door recently, I always thought that was a fabrication to cover abuse or impairment. I got a black eye. Big sigh…
Neeroc says:
I’m not sure how long the lack of spacial awareness goes on for, but my daughter, at 4, is still having issues. She knows she can’t go under the counter/table anymore, but will often cut corners too close and thwack herself in the eye on the counter, or walk under something that she no longer fits under (freezer door). I just keep thinking, ‘her poor melon!’
Jessica Makuh says:
Do you have stools under the counter? Maybe you could put a plant there or something so she doesn’t see it as a walkway?
Megan@TrueDaughter says:
Our now 11 year old was like that – my husband wanted her to wear a helmet, too! Our boys never seemed to have those problems for some reason. Maybe the girls just take after me, I bump my head on EVERYTHING.
Janelle says:
In a few weeks she’ll be tall enough that the counter is eye height and the head-bonking will cease. And you’ll have to buy a whole new wardrobe because none of her clothes fit.
Trisha says:
My 3 year old was the same way and would scold the table and yell “bad table!!” like it was the tables fault.
The really scary part of these growth spurts is when they become teenagers. I have three teens and a toddler and my older girls can now look me straight in the eye as I’m only about 5′-2″. That’s when it gets a little tricky.