As it was, it was a very good thing that his eye was closed when the soft nerfy projectile hit his face because it managed to bruise his eyeball. Got that? Even a nerf "shell" can hit your eye with enough velocity to cause damage. Babalouie's eye turned a very horrifying color and his mom took him immediately to urgent care. There, they took one look at him and sent him downtown to the eye specialists.
End of story is that his beautiful Disney Princess eye is fine.
But for a day it looked like Disney Evil Dragon eye. He had to go to the eye specialist about five times over the course of two weeks to make sure that it was healing up properly and nothing was damaged and during that period, Babalouie had to take it easy. He had to wear a clear eyepatch but it also meant no running, jumping, climbing, falling, riding, sneezing, coughing, rubbing, poking or anything else that could possibly put undue pressure on his traumatized eyeball. These strictures, for a boisterous, active 7 year old boy with horses in his backyard were extremely difficult to enforce. Since there was virtually no pain and he could see just fine, he kept forgetting that his eye was hurt and he had to be careful. He does really like the protective goggles he now has to wear whenever he feels like taking target practice. His siblings and friends have gotten some sweet ninja goggles too.