"Icarus, my son, keep near me and will be safe" - T.Bullfinch
Posted 17th May 2008 by anastasiav
crying he got impatient with me and pulled away, off to finish his
cracker and do some other toddler things. No bumps, no bruises, no
fuss, apparently no harm done.
I was fine, too, until bedtime.
Bedtime last night was unusually rough, for a number of reasons.
Because his bedding was still in the dryer I brought E in our bed to
put him to sleep, intending to move him later. I never moved him.
Sometime between the end of his story and the point where he feel
asleep in mid wail I became convinced that he had some dreadful injury
that we couldn't see and that his crying and thrashing was a symptom of
that. He slept in the bed with us all night, so I could make sure he
continued to breathe.
He woke up this morning sunny and ready for a new day.
My husband reminds me that we don't want to be overprotective parents, and that
"he's gonna fall, its gonna happen" but its a far cry from saying that
in theory and seeing that tiny still body laying on the bark mulch.
He wasn't hurt, but he could have been.
But he wasn't.
But I wasn't there to catch him.
But I can't always be there to catch him.
But he's two. He's just a baby. No judgment yet.
That's how they learn.
If he'd gotten hurt I'd have felt terrible.
That's probably true.
Bottom
line: Its harder to be five feet away and watch them fall than five
hundred feet. Also, we need to buy some band aids and bactine to keep
at our house.
1 comment so far...
Scariest thing I've ever heard. By the time we two mothers reached the bottom of the stairs, he had commenced to wailing, the pause caused only by having the wind knocked right out of him. And, like your son, a few bumps but nothing of consequence.
The neighbour and I both started to laugh when he started to cry -- sheerest relief.
That baby boy is now 19, six feet tall and probably moving out in the fall. The sorts of falls he's likely to be taking now are of a different sort, but I'm not so sure they're any less nerve-wracking!
It does get easier, though. Probably because you've seen them get bumped and bruised so many times, you've seen them through emotional and social bumps and bruises... and every time, they dust themselves off and keep going! They learn they can take a fall and keep going -- and so do you!
Flag as inappropriate Posted by MaryP on 17th May 2008