Saturday, May 23, 2009

WARNING!!! DANGER!!

Beware, everyone! THIS could happen if you take your children to Target with you:
And this:
Don't let these photographs fool you. It's even worse-looking in person. And these were taken the day of; it's even more bruised and black today. He definitely has a black eye.
How did this happen, you ask? No, I did not beat him.
Pull up a chair, settle in, and hark to my tale of woe.
It all began on a lonely Friday. I decided to go to Target and get all the things on my list. I got all of them, and then the kids were getting antsy, so I let them get out of the cart while I looked at the children's clothes on sale. Long story short, Ethan was running around, and I felt too depressed and tired to stop him. He wasn't really doing any harm anyway, except endangering himself. He was hi-tailing it around a corner, tripped and fell, and hit his poor little eye right on the corner of a metal shelf.
Of course he started screaming.
The three Indian ladies standing close by shot me glaring looks of disapproval. But at least one of them was nice enough to ask me if he was okay.
At first, I was irritated that he fell, but when I looked at his eye and saw the gash, the immediate swelling, and the immediate purple coloring, my heart skipped a beat. I told myself to calm down; it didn't look like he'd need stitches, and it was barely bleeding.
We got some ice from the food area, Ethan stopped crying, we checked out asap, and drove home fast.
This is why I love and adore SHOPPING SANS CHILDREN. Shopping sans children is one of my favorite activities. 
I ended the day feeling like a failure as a mother because what kind of mother lets her children run wild around the store?
This is not a rhetorical question, so when you answer it, please answer "Even the best ones" so that I will feel better.
Thank you.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Ethan and I made pink lemonade this morning. It was this month's recipe in his High Lights magazine.
And here's Benji doing one of his favorite activities: hanging onto my pants leg. He's really talented at it.
Benji is sick. Possible teething. Fever of 100.6 yesterday, ridiculously fussy and cranky. He's got a really runny nose, some coughing, and is drooling like Niagara Falls. He woke up LITERALLY EVERY HOUR last night except for 1 am. That would be: 11 pm, 12 midnight, 2 am, 3 am, 4 am, 5 am, 6 am and 7 am. That's 8 times my friends, 8 times!!
Back to some good news: Ethan says, "I love you" these days. He's been saying it for a couple of weeks without prompting. He'll randomly come up to me and say, "I like you, Mommy." When I come back from an errand, he'll say, "I missed you." When I kiss him goodnight and say I love you, he says, "I wuv you too." It's heart-melting!

4 comments:

Jen said...

What's wrong with letting your kid run around a store? The only think wrong is that he accidentally fell, which he could do anywhere. You let him have fun and take risks. What's wrong with that? :o)

Carl and Amber said...

Experience is the best teacher, right?! The hardest thing for a mother to do is let go. You were being very selfless allowing your heart to feel such pain just so that your son could learn :). (Plus, you definitely scored points by turning lemons into lemonade.)

Jackie said...

O.K., that Ethan fell is not funny, but the fact that I had an amazingly similar experience on Saturday is! The kids and I went to Staples to get this shelf that I've been wanting for awhile. I never just let my kids run, but like you, I was SO tired and apathetic and no one was in there, so yes, I let the kids run like it was a darn race track. While I was checking out the clearance table, they made themselves at home in all the computer desks and office furniture, deciding where their kitchen and bedrooms were. They just couldn't get over how much fun this visit was. I think it'll be awhile before I take them again because I'm sure they'll want to run again and I just got lucky last time that one of them didn't fall like Ethan!

Jessica Rhodes said...

Why are kids so darn suicidal??? (Says the mom of the kid who had to have 2 surgeries after touching a light bulb and the kid who nearly stabbed her eye with a pencil at the doctor's office...)