Mommy Fail

Yesterday was supposed to be a great day. Instead it turned into a nightmare.

I had Kel leave the car home so that the boys and I could run an errand and then head to the park. However, by the time we made it to the park, D was asking over and over and over constantly to get out of the car and C was trying to beat D with his sippy cup. What I should have done, what I wish I had done, was take the boys home, give them a nap, and then try the park again in the afternoon. What I did instead was scoop the boys out of the car and turned them lose on the playground.

Not five minutes later, and the first accident happened.  C was trying to climb up the stairs to get to the bridge and he was going just a tad to fast. Or a lot too fast, because he ended up tripping over his own feet (how he did that CRAWLING I have no idea) and doing a face plant into the plastic stairs. He cried and bled, and then cried some more. It wasn't horrible, nothing that a wipe or three and some kisses from Mommy couldn't fix. But this should have been a sign to start heading home.

Because this took my attention away from  D. For three minutes it took my attention away from D. And that was all it took.

This is when accident two happened.

At the park I was at, there are two playgrounds near each other, one on slightly higher ground than the other, with rocks separating the two. C and I were on the lower level, cleaning up the little blood that was coming out of his mouth, and D decided that he wanted to go down the slide on the other level. I didn't even hesitate when I told him to go for it, and I'd be right there as soon as C was all better. It was nothing unusual and D knew what he could handle.

There was another mom and her daughter on that playground, and D was having fun showing her how to slide down the "Big Slide". Just as C and I were about to head up to higher grounds, I watch out of the corner of my eye as my three year old becomes Evil Kenevil and does a front flip off of the playground. Right in front of the other mommy.  As I'm racing to my screaming child, I can only pray that he did not break his back or split open his skull or any of the other million worse case scenarios that were playing through my head and that C would not start running into a different direction.

By the time I got to D, he had already stood up and was waiting for me to pick him up and hold him. He couldn't really tell me what happened, other than saying he was trying to climb the ladder, and the other mommy was not helpful as apparently she did not speak English very well. "Why didn't you catch me Mommy?" has been D's mantra for the past thirty three hours and each time he utters it, it is like a knife twisting in my heart. Why wasn't I there? Why didn't I make him wait? What could I have done differently?

 If only, if only, if only. 

If only I had just gone home then D would not have a radial fracture in his right wrist. And he would not be sporting a light blue cast starting at his little hand, going all the way up past his elbow, and ending just below his shoulder.

This bad boy will be apart of D for the next three weeks at which point he'll transition into a splint for another two to three weeks before the doctor thinks he'll be completely healed. Apparently this is a common, defensive fracture for kids his age. Still makes me feel like a horrible, rotten, no good, very bad Mommy.

Ok, I'm done complaining now. At least it hasn't impaired his ability to play his Toy Story 3 game.

Feel better soon my darling, daring, brave D.  

I promise I'll try harder next time and catch you.