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"Icarus, my son, keep near me and will be safe" - T.Bullfinch

Because my care provider is on vacation this week, I've had to make alternate childcare arrangements.  My son spent two days with my mother, today with his other grandparents, yesterday with his father, and today with me -- a rare treat.  I had to run a few errands, so it was a lot of "in the car, out of

the car" but we did get him new yellow rubber boots for splashing and a

wind-up powered flashlight for camping trips.

And then we ended the day playing on this great playground over on the Eastern Prom where there never seem to be any children. It

has a lot of fun equipment and a superb view of the ocean. One thing

they have there is this piece of playground equipment that consists of

a series of metal platforms leading to slides and things, but the

entire thing is platformed up about five feet off the ground (Ah, I

love Google: here's a picture,

since all my photos are still in my camera). We spent over an hour

there, as E enjoyed going down the slides and running around on the

platforms. Because of the height, and because there are openings where

the kids can climb up from the ground (you can see one in the photo, at

the top of the S-shaped vertical monkey-bars kind of thing in front of

the slide).

So, of course, I'm being hyper vigilant and either

getting up on the platforms with E, or running around the edges making

sure he doesn't step off into nothingness and fall and break his neck.

And, mostly, E seems to get that the openings (including the opening at

the top of one very steep staircase) were sort of off limits and tended

to avoid them. At one particular moment, he was happily chattering to

himself as she spun the big ships wheel that overlooked the ocean, so I

took a moment to step away and put my camera back in its bag.

And of course, E decides at that moment that he's going to step off into nothingness.

He

fell five feet from the platform to the ground, at that very opening

you can see in the photo. I suspect he hit or bounced off of the

S-shaped climber, because he somehow turned in midair and instead of

landing feet first he landed on his left side. He bounced slightly when

he landed, and then was quiet and still for several seconds. Several

long seconds. I had been standing at the foot of the slide you see in

the photo when he stepped off, but couldn't get there in time to catch

him.

He started to cry before I reached him, though, and stood

up and hugged me, one soggy cracker still clutched in his right hand. I

hugged him tight and checked him over, but after less than a minute of