A Scary Day

Jack is almost 2 now. He’s had his share of bumps and bruises. He fell off a bed once. More recently, he fell off a chair. A couple weeks ago he fell in the shower and got a black eye; he still has some remnants of it. This morning, he leaned on one of his car tracks and it toppled and him him on the side of his jaw. He’s a maniac. He keeps on trucking, though.

He’s had a pretty bad cold the last couple days. His chest is really congested; when he has a coughing fit, its pretty awful. His fever is gone, though, and he’s basically ok, just have to wait it out. The doctor wants to see him again Tuesday if the cough is still there.

Today we went to ROOMS TO GO FOR KIDS to check out some beds for him. He’s not quite ready yet, but he’s getting there. They had only 2 race car beds. There were a lot of really neat bunk beds; clever things. I was thinking we should kidnap another male child so that we have reason to use the bunk beds. Then Gina suggested that we could get one without committing a felony for and use it when his friends sleep over.

He really liked the bunk beds, one in particular. It had a stair case leading to the top. Each stair was a drawer. Clever design. He climbed up that 3 times, and I carried him down. I have some nice pictures and video of it.

Gina was nervous with him on the top bunk, but we never left his side. I carried him down each time. He’s definitely not ready for bunk beds; that would be a future endeavor. Right now, we’re only interested in racing car beds and the like. ROOMS TO GO KIDS was like a play ground for him.

After that, we went to BABIES R US. They have carriages with infant seats on them, so we loaded Ellie into that. I carried Jack in, and then set him free to explore. But, he really wasn’t up for it. He wasn’t feeling good and was tired and wanted to chill out.

Without thinking much of it, I sat him down in the shopping carriage. Big mistake.

I was looking at something, I don’t know what. I was a step or two from the carriage. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack move. What happened next probably lasted 2 seconds, but seemed like an eternity. He fell over the side of the cart, completely vertical, head down falling to the hard tile floor. It is about the worst thing I have ever seen in my life… can you imagine the kind of injuries that can result in? It was a millisecond of complete horror.

I’m not sure exactly how I did what I did, and at this point I’m not entirely sure that what I’m about to describe is exactly right, but if it’s incorrect it’s extremely close… While he was in midair, I swung around and caught him by the thigh and pulled up just as his head hit the ground. (I felt it hit and my heart completely sank. I really thought it was going to be spectacularly bad.) I immediately pulled slightly up and continued the swing bringing his body up like a pendulum. It changed most of the energy from vertical to horizontal. Then, I had to sort of pull him back again before he hit the shelves to my side. I did that by sort of flipping him towards me and catching him on my chest, and immediately hugged him very tight while lowering him to the ground. I held his head tight in my hands because I felt him hit the ground and really thought this was a defining critical moment in his life; something that could have repercussions forever. I kept feeling the back and top of his head looking for injury, blood or a bump. I held him tight because he was freaking out and need to be reassured.

People were staring at us from all directions, and they all look equally horrified. Gina didn’t see the fall, only the catch and was freaking out because she though I was tossing him around like a rag doll for recreational purposes. She then put it together and realized what happened.

I wasn’t really thinking about the people who were staring at us much. They could’ve been concerned about a screaming kid; they could’ve been judging as as terrible parents; or they might’ve seen the fall and save and wondering what the outcome was. But, my impression is that they were all in shock like we were. (I don’t want to exaggerate the number of people… we were at the end of an aisle. There was one family directly ahead, and one family to the left. I didn’t notice to the right.)

After a couple minutes (at least it seemed that long), Jack started to calm down and we looked at his forehead. That’s what hit the ground, above his left eye. There wasn’t a bump, and there wasn’t blood, just some bruising that wasn’t even raised. The whole area was a little pinkish.

One of the families came walking over after a few minutes (husband, wife, kid). The guy seemed like he was in more shock than I was, and he didn’t really know what to say. He eventually settled on “That was amazing… you grabbed him out of thin air”. I thanked him, and we exchanged a few awkward words. He gave me an encouraging bump on the shoulder. It would’ve been a fist bump if my hands weren’t occupied holding jack.

Here’s the thing… the catch was amazing. Other than being in the right spot, luck had nothing to do with it. It happened very quick, but I was in 100% control of it and knew exactly what I was doing every millisecond. I knew I couldn’t catch him outright; it was too late. I had to lessen the impact without throwing him into the shelves. To prevent hitting the shelves, I had to pull him back, but I had to do so without hurting him. To pull him back, I gave him a little flip that brought him back towards me and landed him on my chest.

All my life, I’ve been flipping things. When I take a glass out of the cupboard, I spin it on my hand. When I pick something up off the floor, instead of just picking it up I toss it up between my legs, stand up turn around and catch it. If someone throws something to me, I catch it in my right hand, flip it up behind my back and over my shoulder and catch it in the same hand. And, I’m very good at nunchucks. Why do I do this stuff? Mainly because I’m a big goof, but also because I’ve always been a ninja wannabe. I have a whole bunch of stupid little talents that are usually completely useless other than as parlor tricks.

What I did with Jack I could do because I’ve been doing it all my life, albeit usually not with a 30 pound child. But, the principles held, and I tossed the poor little kid like he was a bottle of water.

It was a great save, but it shouldn’t have been necessary.  It could’ve been avoided simply by not putting him in the carriage. I now have deeply embedded paranoia the likes of which I have never known. So much for the bunk beds; we’ll put a mattress on the floor and surround it with pillows, just incase.

Once it was all done, the immediate thought was to get him to the hospital. Oh, that reminds me… I need to make a point that I should’ve by now, but didn’t, so I’ll awkwardly force it in here. There wasn’t an adrenaline rush at all. I’m pretty prone to adrenaline rushes, but it didn’t happen at all this time. I was completely calm and collected, and didn’t get the shaky limbs or the quivering lower lip that are my blatant signs of something being amiss. Anyway, I figured it was time to get him to the hospital. But, once he calmed down he seemed fine. A bump never developed. He wasn’t dazed. He was alert. There was no sign of confusion, his pupils weren’t dilated, and there wasn’t any blood in the white’s of his eyes. And he started walking around like nothing had happened. We considered our options, then checked out and left the store.

The next part of our outing was to stop at Dave’s house. Dave generously provided some ice as Jack walked around his house and systematically destroyed everything that he could. He took all of Dave’s shoes off the shelf. He splashed around in the dog bowls. He played with the garbage can saying “GAR” every time he opened or closed it. He got mad when I kicked him out of the kitchen. He climbed on the couch (which is now a terrifying experience) and pointed at cars out the window.

Still no bump, and the red area has reduced. Dave was very hospitable to us for at least an hour, then we decided to go to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner.

Jack threw his food and threw his fork, and laughed as if it was the funniest thing he had ever done. When he got tired of sitting, I put him down and followed him around the restaurant as he pointed at things, stared at people inappropriately, and tried to pick up trash off the floor. At the front, they have their motto in big raised letters on the wall. Something like “Create. Eat. Enjoy”. He walked letter to letter, pointed to it and said “This?”, so I told him each letter and the periods as he encountered them.

In conclusion, as far as we can tell, he is completely fine. We consulted several online resources to see how to deal with these things. We are watching him very closely and will bring him to the ER if his behavior is at all off, or if the bruise is significant or becomes a bump. All signs indicate that I didn’t catch him in time, but it was close enough.

This is one of those things that has been forever burned in my memory. Freak accident or not, I will never again put him in a shopping carriage. Just try to imagine a kid falling head first, from a vertical position to a tile floor… it’s gut wrenching.

As you can imagine, I feel completely awful about this. It was a terrible experience that has completely dwarfed all other terrible experiences. It could’ve ended much worse, though.