"He threw me into the wall..."

On Sunday, we were goofing around...playing whatever version of "the chasing game" Avery last declared...

"Okay, me and Daddy are the lion and lion cub, and Mommy and Noel are the lion hunters...Let's go Daddy!...Let's go hide in our den!...Mommy and Noel are going to try to find us and chase us, okay?  Okay guys?  Let's go..."

...when, as part of the game, Avery and Noel both ran and jumped on Jeff (Avery to escape, Noel to attack), who was sitting on the couch.  Jeff was tickling them and tossing them around, when, all of a sudden, he effectively piledrived Avery's head into the frame of the window behind our couch.  She immediately started freaking-out, and by the time Jeff had gathered her up and flipped her around into his lap, she already had a very large and very blue lump on her forehead.  I ran and got the Curious George ice-pack from the freezer, and we spent the next 15 minutes trying to trick her into pressing the pack against her head.  After just a few minutes she had calmed down, declaring the she wanted to "play a calm game now."

Monday morning, I took Avery and Noel to our produce store.  We frequent this place at least once a week, so all of the store employees recognize us and make a point of chatting with Avery and Noel at some point during each of our visits.  In turn, each employee made his/her way over to us and began talking to Avery about school and dance and the fact that she was wearing a lot of pink (again).  During each conversation, the person would suddenly notice the giant, colorful bruise on Avery's forehead and asked her what happened.  To this questioning Avery would always respond, "My Daddy did that to me.  He threw me into the wall."  Each person would, at this point, look up at me with a questioning look on his/her face.  I would explain what actually happened, and then Avery would add, "It's okay...my Daddy gave me a frozen monkey to make it better."  More questioning looks...more explanations...

Although the bruise has significantly diminished since yesterday morning (and even more so since Sunday), here is a photo of the girl and her battle wound...

Doesn't she look pitiful?  Or is it utterly irritated?