So, on our agenda for the day was a trip to a relatively new "play cafe" nearby. I did my research, talked to other mamas who'd been there, etc. etc... Basically, it's a creative space designed for little kids age five and under. I was told it was "perfect" for toddlers. Well, I'm sure that's true, but I don't think they took a toddler like Caden into consideration when artistically filling the playful space. He's not into sitting quietly in the adorable play kitchen and cooking mama lunch with cute, wooden food (I tried!). He's into running around like a wild man while screaming "cars" and jumping off relatively high surfaces. Don't worry... I stay with him in an attempt to prevent accidents from happening, or in today's case to try to cushion the blow.
We arrived at said play cafe, removed our shoes (as stated by the official rules), found ourselves a nice little spot by the small jungle gym, and Caden went up and down the slide with mama's help. This lasted a good five minutes, which is a feat in itself in toddler time! Then, we decided to explore the wooden kitchen. Caden proceeded to throw all the pretty dollhouse (next to the cute kitchen) objects into the fake oven. I pointed out the fake pies and muffins, but he was not impressed. This activity lasted a whopping two minutes! Yay! While I fished the dolls out of oven, Caden zipped over to a bench (for moms who have calm children to rest on) and hops right up to walk across it. I, of course, said "no" and explained we had to "sit" on the bench...
[By the way, does anyone else feel like disciplining a toddler is sometimes like training a puppy, because I have two little poodle mixes and I've been getting some serious déjà vous!]
He listens and sits, briefly. He then gets back up, darts towards the edge of the bench, and yep you guessed it! He takes a tumble, and he lands right on HIS FACE. He screams, cries, flails... I scoop him quickly up and cradle him tightly to my chest. Then, I see the blood... Oh lord, "Are you ok... do we need stitches?!" I ask him. He screams. At this point, everyone in the adorable play cafe is staring at us. I mean EVERYONE (even the less than 12-monthers are judging us). Caden cries and I use my hand and then my nice, lime green jacket to mop the blood off his sweet, injured face. I realize soon that the actual cut is only on his upper lip, and its not that deep or big (thank goodness). It just bleeds - a lot. The owner comes rushing over with cool, wet cloths and I dab and dab and dab and soothe. I'm pretty sure they (everyone else there) were ecstatic when we put our shoes back on and left the premises. I even said "hey, thanks it was fun!," and the owner nervously smiled back at me, like "yeah, it sure was..." What I didn't hear her say is, "y'all come back now, ya hear?" Ha.
[Perhaps you're wondering where calm baby Cooper was while all this craziness was unfolding. He was sitting with NaNa and PaPa (my parents, who also witnessed the incident). Per usual, he was smiling and cooing away. "Please God, let him stay that way forever. Please. Amen."
Anyway, we leave the play cafe and head to a quick lunch. We instruct the waiter to not salt any of Caden's food as to avoid anything irritating his very swollen, but finally not bleeding upper lip. Caden seems like nothing ever happened, except for the occasional "ow, boo boo" and the point to his mouth. That's his way of letting mama know to kiss it, and I did time and time again. Let it also be known that after ordering, my Dad (PaPa) leaned over and informed me that I still had blood on my neck and all over my jacket. My Mom (NaNa) promptly handed me a tide stick. I am now wondering what our waiter is thinking seeing Caden's fat lip and my bloody clothing while hearing our strict request for unsalted food. I guess I'll never know...
Between my yogurt covered yoga pants at preschool and my blood stained jacket, I'm really putting a stamp on mom fashion in our local community. C'mon ladies, you know these trends are so-hot-right-now!
It's nearly 3 o'clock and Caden is still napping. Cooper is watching me type this and playing with his hands very vivaciously. I am counting the hours and minutes until Phil (DaDa) gets home. OK, not really, but I should be! All in all, I still think today is a good day. We still had fun. We still laughed a lot. We still played and used our imaginations. We just got a few boo-boos too... And isn't that what life is really like?You wake up, go about your day aiming for the best, and hopefully giving it your all, and then something unexpected knocks you down. You get back up, dust it off, put a band aid on it maybe, and you keep going. That's what makes us so tough and it's also what helps us learn our limits and boundaries. Slowly, but surely I'm keeping my fingers crossed that's what Caden is learning too.
As I held my energetic, sweet, rapidly growing little man right after his fall, I prayed that his pain would be brief, but the lesson would remain,"Always listen to your mama, and when I'm not there listen to your gut. Eventually, after some hard knocks, it'll never steer you wrong."
That's it for today, folks... Here's hoping the rest of our day is very uneventful... and if your days are like mine, I hope yours is uneventful too!
And this coming from my friend who has given me all of the fashion advice I have ever received over the years.
ReplyDeleteAlso - this is my "thank goodness for a girl" moment. :) I know girls can be terrors as well, but in a different way.
You are amazing.