Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Curse #9 - Van Doors


I’ve blogged before about my superior mothering skills, but this time, I outdid myself. Friday after being snowed in for three days, we ventured out of the house to the library. I parked next to a curb where the snow was piled up about a foot high. Excited to be visiting one of his favorite places, Brandon jumped out of the van. Because I parked so close to the curb, and the snow was so high on the curb, we had little space to move. Before I closed the van door, I told Brandon, “Get out of the way of the door or it will hurt you. “ As I closed the door, he tripped and his arm went into the path of the door. I saw it coming and slowed the door down slightly, but the door still smushed his arm.

He looked up at me with eyes that said, “Did my mom just smush my arm?” I put Collin back in his car seat, and held Brandon’s other hand as he was screaming, and rightly so. I asked if I could see his arm, but he wouldn’t let me. I tried to get him to calm down by taking some deep breaths, but it was no use. Then I said one of the dumbest lines I have ever said as a mother. “Brandon, you have to let me see your arm. You could be really hurt.” Brandon’s eyes got even bigger, and then he screamed , “Noooo!!! You’re going to break my arm! I broke a booooone !!! No!!! You’re going to break my arm!” As Brandon repeated these phrases over and over, Collin began screaming to the top of his lungs. Collin was probably saying, “She’s gonna’ break his arm,” in baby talk. A woman walked by and looked suspiciously at the whole scene. I can only dream of what she thought was happening. I wanted to explain the situation to her, but “It’s okay. I just smushed his arm in the van door,” doesn’t seem like a good explanation.

Finally, I told Brandon we were going to have to go home since he was hurt. Because he wanted to go to the library so badly, he started to calm down. He showed me his arm, and I breathed a sigh of relieve to see his arm was bruised, but not broken.

One day, when he’s older, Brandon will probably ask me, “Mom, why do you think I wince every time a car door closes?” I will say, “I have no idea,” and quickly change the subject.


2 comments:

  1. Loved the post! Sorry for Brandon's arm. Collin was probably thinking "I'm next".

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  2. Should have signed #3s#1

    ReplyDelete