Shiner

I had a lovely day yesterday. We baked a cake in the morning and in the afternoon I took Joseph and the cake to visit a friend of mine who has a little boy a few months younger than Joseph.
It's nice to be sociable and Joseph had fun exploring in a new house. We had lunch and then some cake and we were having a nice relaxing conversation when Joseph decided to start shimmy-ing along the furniture again. He'd been up and down the sofa and back and forth to a little coffee table several times so I thought nothing of it, but I did keep an eye out as there were a few things I didn't want him getting hold of and dribbling on.
He must have misjudged the distance. He was holding onto the sofa and he reached out for the coffee table but his little chubby hand missed. By this point the rest of his body had decided to follow along anyway, but unable to balance he simply fell forwards in quite an impressive comedy pratfall style.
He impacted the table with quite a thump and cried accordingly. I cuddled him and very quickly his bright purple face paled, his gaping mouth slowly closed and the terrible howling gently ceased.
He seemed fine, he went back to playing with the other little boy and all was calm again. Both children were having great fun just staring and smiling at each other and I have no doubt that soon they will end up playing games of raspberry tennis. This is a game that all small children seem to love.
The afternoon drew to a close and we went home, leaving the rest of the cake. I like cake, but we're going to be having a lot of cake in the upcoming weeks so I'm happy to share and I know it will be appreciated.
I noticed a little while after I had got him home that his left eyelid was a bit puffy and had a small pink mark on it. I had assumed he'd hit himself on the forehead and I hadn't seen a mark so I hadn't been worried. I spent several minutes staring carefully into his eyes, but both were clear and bright and it looked like the only injury was to the lid.
Today the lid isn't so swollen but behind the pink mark was the dusky blue hint of a bruise. Now, in the late afternoon the blue tint has spread to the lower lid and it looks like my little boy is in for a proper shiner. I suspect the worst of the bruise will show tomorrow, my own experience shows that eye socket injuries are slow to develop their signs. I am fervently praying that whatever bruise does develop is long gone by the time his party arrives. That would just be the thing to spoil all the pictures and it would be a lasting reminder of my moment of inattention. In the mean time I'll just keep an "eye" on him to make sure everything is all right and regular doses of Calpol will be administered.