I am sure that every parent goes through those frightful close calls with their little one(s) where their stomach rises up into their throat and they are fearfully shocked by what has just taken place and distraught at the fact that they could not have forseen it to prevent it. We had the likes of such happen to us just 2 days ago when our little girl of 3 through the prompting of a little friend went down a slide backward and on her stomach. Let me add here that she does not not yet know how to slow herself down on a slide! This is an important detail to visualizing the story properly. Okay, on with the rest of it:
It was a slide that was not the smallest of the kiddie slides by comparison to the others. Added to this was the fact that it was one of those that has an extra little hump in the slide itself about half way down the stretch of the slide as you go down so that it kind of throws you up and off the slide at the end so that you kind of 'catch a little air' as you come off of it rather than it just kind of dumping you off at the bottom. "Yikes" is right!
Shayla and these other 3 kids were having a thrill just riding it down in turn on their butts and just landing with a 'thump', their bottoms making contact with the pea gravel that provided the base material for this playground. At first, I didn't really like the fact that she wasn't catching herself with her feet, but none of these toddlers seemed phased by that at all. 'Thump, thump, thump', they'd go one right after the other. "Ok", I thought, "maybe this is normal".
So there I am chatting it up with these two other moms and I hear, very thinly on the air, as we are standing within about 5 feet of this slide, one of the playmates, a little boy of about 3 1/2 to 4, say "Go down on your tummy, go down on your tummy". I realize in that split second that he was talking to Shayla as I had seen that they were taking turns going down it.
"NO!", I thought, and ran to the side of the slide, but as I did so I saw that I was too late before I had even got there as she was sailing off, feet first, and on her stomach.
'Bam!' She was tossed out on her tummy with her full weight hitting the hard surface of the pea gravel with the full force of the slide's energy accompanying her. I could see it in her face that the forse had knocked the wind out of her. She was quiet, and then on her next full breath the crying came on full strength. Poor baby. She was surprised by what happened, but I guess this is how we learn about being in a physical body on a physical planet with interactive forces that have a causal effect relationship.
I knelt down looking at her carefully to see that all the parts were still connected and that there were no bones sticking out where they shouldn't be or blood bruised skin that was glaringly obvious. She looked okay other than her shocked, frightened condition. Rather than pick her up from her prostrated position on the ground, I let her get up (so as not to cause more physical pain) and put her arms around me crying and shocked. "I'm So Sorry that happened to you, baby", I apologetically consoled as I gently cradled her and swung from side to side. "Man, that looked like that HURT", I empathized! "Do you know that daddy did stuff like that before when he was your age?" "No", she said, sobbing. "Yeah, I did. I surely did", I said heavy with empathy,..."But...it didn't take me long to figure out what I could and could not do---just as you are learning now. We always want to go down forward on slides, and catch our bodies with our feet. That's the key. Also, we must respect gravity--the force that pulls you into the Earth and makes your body heavy."
"Okay", I said as the crying had subsided as I set her down, "now I want you to walk around and tell daddy if your body hurts anywhere while you walk". "Yeah", she said. "It hurts here", pointing to the right lower portion of her ribcage. "Okay", I replied, "anywhere else"? "Here too, on my bottom", she said pointing to the back of her left side. "Okay...okay", I said as I was taking the information in. It doesn't seem too major, I thought to myself. We'll have to see how she acts here shortly. That's really the indicator with kids: their behavior.
Within about 5 mins of our consoling session she was running around again, and yes, getting on the slide again although more cautiously this time. You could see that a little respect had dawned in her mind.
This was a very frightful experience for me because things like this make it exceedingly clear that you, as a parent, no matter what, can't be everywhere at once no matter how much you want to be. Kids are just too fast and too adventurous for you to keep up with all the time. Thankfully, at this age, they are practically made out of cartilage. Once again the intelligence of creation is brought to the fore. I reflect that it's amazing that as many of us, as do, actually make it to adulthood.
So with Shayla having told me where her body had been hurt, I set about to watch over the course of the next few days to see how that all progressed. As it turns out, she complained a little more that night and the next day about how her bottom hurt. That was not really what prompted me to scedule a doctor's appointment, but rather a couple mentions of being dizzy were more concerning to me. So we went the next day and had her checked out just to be sure. It turned out that the dizziness pertained to a previous ear infection that was just clearing up--she was just finishing up a round of Amoxicillin, and the doctor said that there was a little residual fluid in the ear, which can give the occassional sensation of dizziness.
We do all we physically can to protect our little one (aside from keeping her in a cardboard box (smile)) as she learns about her world and grows, and the rest, we trust is governed by the benevolent forces of the universe through our petitions in thoughts and prayers that we constantly send up. Love and Trust. Love and Trust. Love and Trust.
