Near Misses
(Not yet.)
Kristen loves me. At least she says she loves me (and I’m taking her word for it, because without her love, I’m pretty much sunk). But as much as she loves me and trusts me to do the right thing, there are still plenty of times that she has to make sure that I actually do the right thing.
For example, I’ve been trying to post on this blog at least 4 times a week for the past couple of months. Even though Barnabas is still stubborn and keeping glued to Kristen’s innards, there are plenty of other things that happen to our lives. Unfortunately, a lot of those things that I think would be great to share with you, the Barnabas-loving public, are not things that Kristen wants shared. These are mostly funny stories about strange things that happen when you’re pregnant. (And when I say strange, I mean strange.)
So that time when Kristen… oh, wait. I can’t write that.
Or that time when I… nope, that’s verboten, too.
See? See what I mean? All those funny stories, forever locked in my brain, just begging to be released on a weekend furlough. And why? Because Kristen wants a little bit of decorum. Darn her and her common sense!
Well, here’s one very short story for today. Yesterday, Kristen called me in the afternoon and in the middle of the conversation, she casually mentions that she almost tripped and fell while crossing the street.
Of course, I go into my overly protective mode. “Are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt?”
Kristen’s fine, you see, because she didn’t trip, she didn’t fall. She almost tripped. And while all’s well with her, I nearly had a heart attack. We quickly came to the conclusion that my heart cannot stand “almosts,” and that unless she actually does trip (which is never, ever going to happen, got it?), she is not allowed to tell me of close calls.
The same thing will go for Barnabas. Babies and toddlers are always getting into something they shouldn’t and are always grabbing at things they shouldn’t or putting things in their mouth that they shouldn’t or falling or tripping or whatnot. It happened to you and me and will happen to Barnabas. But those thousands of close calls that could possible end in bruises or scratches or (heaven forbid) broken fingers will never be spoken of until he turns at least 15. Then, and only then, will be lay everything out and see how he nearly was in traction every day of his life.
And boy will that be a long blog post.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hmmm… as I recall, Jay’s first broken wrist was at age 7 (fall on bike?? OR skateboarding??). You can’t be everywhere at all times (or you’d smother him with too much attention which he may get razzed for… not a good thing either for his self esteem). You need to be able to let children try various sports and music interests so they can find the activites that enrich their lives [even when there is the danger of a broken bone, you can't be afraid of being who you are and what you really enjoy doing [granted within reason... lot's o' 'splainin' may need to be done for what 'reason' means
) ]).
He (monkeypants et.al.?) will go through the phases too… and if he’s not lethargic may even experience a bone fracture. Be there for him and be his concious to be ever wary of hurting himself at something he loves doing. Don’t simply take the path of saying NO to something because you dont’ want to be involved with ‘spotting’ for him [certain aspects of parental trust have to be earned].
Kristen was not as challenging at 7 as Jay was (and I think that is a ‘boy’ thing). He was climbing and walking about a month sooner than her… had to really move things high into the shelves so he didn’t have access to things that might hurt him [I mean... the same was true for Kristen, it's just relatively she was almost a year older before the same level of curiosity of surroundings set in].
Main thing is… be there for the important events, praising and supporting him.