Survivor: Three Year Old season

Ben is trying his darnedest to get in every bruise and bump that he can before summer is over.

Challenge #1: He put a plastic kid-size chair on the front patio - which has a slope to it. And he put the chair facing uphill, where Aaron, a neighbor and I were sitting. Then he rocked back ever so slightly...tipping himself over. I was fully expecting to see blood on the cement, and all 3 of us adults were holding our breath, but that kiddo got up saying, "I okay! I okay!" Apparently his head hit just over the edge of the patio where there was landscaping rock. I never thought I'd say it, but thank goodness his head hit the rocks!

Challenge #2: Old-fashioned metal slide at the park. Slide with REALLY steep steps, covered in sand. Last year he slid about half way down the steps with no serious harm, and apparently that lesson was totally forgotten, because he did it again today. He ended up with sand in his mouth and was crying, but I had him rinse and spit, and before I could even get his face totally wiped off, he was trying to run off saying, "Me okay now!" He did have bump on his forehead that showed up later, though.

Challenge #3: This was the most difficult challenge, since it required an accomplice: sister Leah. We were sitting at a picnic table enjoying our free ice cream. Leah spotted some friends of ours and had turned around on the bench to wave them down. As she was doing some kind of wacky dance on the seat, she slipped off, falling between the table and the bench. Her leg smacked Ben, who was in the middle of taking a drink of lemonade. He fell under the table, too, and the lemonade went up into the air, and then onto him - it was dripping off his little earlobe! Needless to say, our friends located us with no problem, since we seemed to have had a kid explosion and both of them were sobbing. (Thankfully, Adam slept through the whole thing.) Aaron took Leah, and I went to Ben. As I wiped up as much lemonade as I could, I asked him -while he was still crying loudly - "Are you hurt or just scared?" And that realist replied, "Just scaaaarrrrred!" Gotta love that honesty.

By now it's hard to tell if his legs are dirty or just bruised...mission accomplished.