Bill Roper's Journal

I love my daughters. And they love me. Katie loves me dearly, while Mommy is Julie's favorite. This is subject to change from time to time, of course.

A week ago last Friday, I was putting Katie to bed. As is her habit, she leaped from the top bunk into the lower bunk with me standing by as the spotter. Then she turned to hug me and get a kiss as I stood at the edge of the bed, but when I hugged her, she grabbed hold of me and lifted her feet. My right elbow's been a little tender lately, so I told her that I needed to put her down and did.

And she immediately bounced back up and put the top of her head straight into my nose.

Katie's head bone is much stronger than my nose, which promptly went crunch. I complained vigorously and Katie cried in remorse at having hurt Daddy. I told her it was ok, to be careful in the future, and I kissed her and tucked her in.

I still have a nice bruise across the bridge of my nose.

Late last week, Katie was crawling around on top of my legs as I sat in the recliner chair and managed to -- several times! -- put her bony little knees painfully into my shinbone. I finally convinced her to stop, but that certainly smarted.

And that probably popped open an old cyst in my leg that was still harboring dormant bacteria from when I had my post-op infection in that leg several years ago. On Sunday morning, I woke up with an enormous hot purple mess right below the old scar.

I have antibiotics now, courtesy of Dr. Bob who was good enough to call them in when I gave him a phone call on Sunday. And the infection is starting to subside.

You know, raising kids is dangerous work!