Scraped Knee

Papillon's first scraped knee happened about 2 weeks ago. It seems like one of those childhood milestones worth documenting.  For some reason it made me smile happily every time I saw her little "boo boo". 

The story went like this. We were preparing to take Marge for a walk and I got the stroller out and asked Papillon if she wanted to get in. She said "no" decisively.  Did she want to walk? I asked. "Yes" she said confidently. Just to make sure she knew what she was saying, I asked a few more times and even tried to put her in the stroller anyway. But she was determined.   So with Marge leading the way, an empty stroller in tow and Papillon toddling just behind me, off we went. 

Papillon was very good at following me and staying on the sidewalk when I asked. Unfortunately one little road goes slightly downhill and has no sidewalk. In her attempt to dutifully walk on the "sidewalk" she walked on the slightly angled and rather narrow drainage gutter on the side of the street (its a different color pavement).  The combination of the two angles made it treacherous and she got going fast and then tripped and landed on the ground.  

Hand in the mud up to her wrist, knees getting the brunt of the fall, but her nose definitely scratching the pavement as well. There was about 1 minute of crying, and a little lip bleeding. But she quickly calmed down. 

"Do you want to ride in the stroller now?" I asked

"No"

"You want to walk more?" 

"Yes"

And off she went. 

We made it almost a full half-mile before Papillon sat down on the curb, stating matter-of-factly "sit".

She rode in the stroller the rest of the way.

She was very clearly pleased as punch with herself for her walk when we got back. 

And, I'm not going to lie, when I later discovered her bloody knee (didn't notice it until after we got back) I was pretty proud myself of her  for being so determined.