I posted the first part back in November, so part 2 is long overdue. Incidently, since then there are a couple of fairly fresh anecdotes to join the pile. It's a listing of various dumb mistakes, some dumber than others, that I have made as a parent. Those delicious "what the hell was I thinking" moments that make you beat yourself up, often more than you deserve. Fortunately I haven't managed to top my running-on-slippery-floor-while-holding-a-baby story, so I guess I'm fairly successful at undumbing.
After Blake started walking days before his first birthday, as expected, he also started falling. We babyproofed the housed as best as we could, including plastic corners for the coffee table, but Blake would just bite those plastic corners until they fell off. Then he'd trip and manage to aim his face directly at the corners, resulting in bruises and one cut that bled a bit and caused us to rush to the hospital for the first time only to have some medical glue applied to the tiny cut. It may have been tiny, but even months later there's still a tiny pink scar left. My mother tells me that I was worse and that as a toddler I was so banged up she could never take any photos of me. I kinda wish I did have banged up baby pictures.
We installed a baby gate only at the top of the stairs as placing one at the bottom made for a far worse tripping hazard for us, especially when we carried Blake. We did a very good job keeping it shut most of the time. Yeah, most. One day I came up with hot porridge and reached the gate. I placed the porridge on the a post while I opened the gate. A big loud "Nooo!" Came from Miron's study. I rushed in to see Blake escape the room the way he always did after being confronted with a crime he commited. Turns out he grabbed a mug full of tea and swung it around, getting tea on the table and leather sofas. I quickly started dabbing the wet areas for some damage control when Miron looked back over my shoulder and said in panic "the stairs!" I looked back and saw that I left the gate open, but Blake wasn't anywhere near it.
"Where is Blake?" I asked, confused by Miron's overreaction. Then I got it. He was already tumbling down the stairs. I ran to the gate and watched him tumble down the rest of the way until he reached the floor and lay there crying. I ran down the stairs screaming his name. I picked him up and rocked him to calm him down. I immediately realized he was OK. The stairs were carpetered and soft and he was tumbling down quite slowly, trying to stop himself several times along the way.
Since then he developed a very careful technique to crawl up the stairs which he then upgraded to crawling down the stairs in reverse. He's now extra careful when approaching not only stairs, but also curbs. I guess they have to get hurt once in a while to understand the concqeunces of being careless in the real world. At least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
The next incident up for nomination happened in June when we went to Barbados. We got a lovely house on the beach for a week as a birthday present for Miron and we decided to fill it with our friends, including Blake's biological mother and his half brother, which was great fun. Blake's first encounter with a body of water bigger than his bath was the Caribbean Sea. Smooth, beautiful and clear. I stuck his floating wings on and dashed into the water as soon as we got to the house. I was so excited for him. The water felt nice and we were just standing there, enjoying it. Well, at least I did. Blake looked a bit confused. He was stripped out of his clothes, been put in a swimming diaper and was taken into this massive bathtube without edges. It was a lot to take in.
Though he wasn't just confused, he was also uncomfortable. Suddenly I noticed that his fingers were getting a bit blue. That didn't make any sense, the water wasn't cold at all. How could... My eyes widened in terror when I realized what happened. I waded out of the water as fast as I could. As soon as we were on dry land I yanked off his floating wings. They were on too tight and stopped his blood circulation. As soon as I took them off he was fine. Phew. His arms falling off on the first day would've totally ruined the holiday. Blake did manage to trip a few days later and chip one of his front teeth though. A really small bit broke off and that was it. He'll have to wait a few years before getting a new one!
There's more, but that will have to wait for part 3. Hopefully by the time I get around to writing part 3 I won't already have enough material for part 4.
--Mickey
After Blake started walking days before his first birthday, as expected, he also started falling. We babyproofed the housed as best as we could, including plastic corners for the coffee table, but Blake would just bite those plastic corners until they fell off. Then he'd trip and manage to aim his face directly at the corners, resulting in bruises and one cut that bled a bit and caused us to rush to the hospital for the first time only to have some medical glue applied to the tiny cut. It may have been tiny, but even months later there's still a tiny pink scar left. My mother tells me that I was worse and that as a toddler I was so banged up she could never take any photos of me. I kinda wish I did have banged up baby pictures.
We installed a baby gate only at the top of the stairs as placing one at the bottom made for a far worse tripping hazard for us, especially when we carried Blake. We did a very good job keeping it shut most of the time. Yeah, most. One day I came up with hot porridge and reached the gate. I placed the porridge on the a post while I opened the gate. A big loud "Nooo!" Came from Miron's study. I rushed in to see Blake escape the room the way he always did after being confronted with a crime he commited. Turns out he grabbed a mug full of tea and swung it around, getting tea on the table and leather sofas. I quickly started dabbing the wet areas for some damage control when Miron looked back over my shoulder and said in panic "the stairs!" I looked back and saw that I left the gate open, but Blake wasn't anywhere near it.
"Where is Blake?" I asked, confused by Miron's overreaction. Then I got it. He was already tumbling down the stairs. I ran to the gate and watched him tumble down the rest of the way until he reached the floor and lay there crying. I ran down the stairs screaming his name. I picked him up and rocked him to calm him down. I immediately realized he was OK. The stairs were carpetered and soft and he was tumbling down quite slowly, trying to stop himself several times along the way.
Since then he developed a very careful technique to crawl up the stairs which he then upgraded to crawling down the stairs in reverse. He's now extra careful when approaching not only stairs, but also curbs. I guess they have to get hurt once in a while to understand the concqeunces of being careless in the real world. At least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
The next incident up for nomination happened in June when we went to Barbados. We got a lovely house on the beach for a week as a birthday present for Miron and we decided to fill it with our friends, including Blake's biological mother and his half brother, which was great fun. Blake's first encounter with a body of water bigger than his bath was the Caribbean Sea. Smooth, beautiful and clear. I stuck his floating wings on and dashed into the water as soon as we got to the house. I was so excited for him. The water felt nice and we were just standing there, enjoying it. Well, at least I did. Blake looked a bit confused. He was stripped out of his clothes, been put in a swimming diaper and was taken into this massive bathtube without edges. It was a lot to take in.
Though he wasn't just confused, he was also uncomfortable. Suddenly I noticed that his fingers were getting a bit blue. That didn't make any sense, the water wasn't cold at all. How could... My eyes widened in terror when I realized what happened. I waded out of the water as fast as I could. As soon as we were on dry land I yanked off his floating wings. They were on too tight and stopped his blood circulation. As soon as I took them off he was fine. Phew. His arms falling off on the first day would've totally ruined the holiday. Blake did manage to trip a few days later and chip one of his front teeth though. A really small bit broke off and that was it. He'll have to wait a few years before getting a new one!
There's more, but that will have to wait for part 3. Hopefully by the time I get around to writing part 3 I won't already have enough material for part 4.
--Mickey
3 comments:
Watching your little one falling down stairs in the most horrid thing in the world. Asimena did that a short while back with me running one stair behind attempting to grab her.
Yeah, I was also going after Blake when he was falling down the stairs. Scary stuff. Good thing little ones are so bouncy...
The phone functions as the screen, which is great if you already own it; not so great if you don’t own the pricey phone already. By its very nature, that means the Gear VR is limited. Buy a new phone and your headset is no longer compatible with it – for now at least.
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