Brady's SECOND Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I am SO glad today is Friday. Aren't you? More than I am glad today is Friday, I am glad yesterday has come and gone. And what a LO-ONG one it was. Mommy or no mommy, these days DO come... please tell me you identify! I kind of get, um... annoyed (or maybe it's jealous) when people act like parenthood (or life in general, for that matter) is just all roses and that they never come across a bad day. (If you indeed don't have 'bad' days, or even long ones, please tell me your secret!) Please keep in mind that in the grand scheme of things, yes, life at the Leach household is pretty easy going, but we are normal people, just like the next person and I like to share my horrors of being a mom just as much as my joys so that no one feels like the odd one out when they have a day like I am about to describe here. :)

Part One - Dropping the Bug off with Papa Ron

On Tuesdays, my mom watches Brady while I work for my dad at the office, and on Thursdays Brady's Mimi's and Papa Ron watch him for a few hours in the morning as well. It's nice for me to kind of get out of the house and do my 'own thing' at my dad's office and have some adult interaction, but now that he's more active, it can be a little daunting getting out of the house by 8:30 in the morning. I've come to realization that no matter what I do, we will not be on time any more. Even when we leave on time, we end up not being on time... anywhere. This bugs me to pieces because I used to be SUCH a stickler for being on time. (This is the ONLY time that I ever tell Jeff to speed up - when we're late for church!)

Anyway, that's not really part of the story. When I got to the office (where Ron meets us), I saw that my dad was there so I wanted to take Brady in to say Hi to his Big Daddy. When I got him out of the car, I could smell his diaper, if you know what I mean. Ron said, "Oh don't worry about it, we'll change him when we get home." So we went in to say hi, chatted for a bit and then back out to the car it was for the transfer. As I was putting Brady back into his carseat, I pulled my hand from behind him and it was COVERED with you-know-what. It was all over the car seat. (In fact, I think it was more than I even realized). Panic mode set in.

"Um, Ron, I think we might have a situation here".

He comes around and looks.

"I think I'm going to take him back in and try to clean him up...."

"No, we can clean him up when we get him home... it's not a big deal".

Well, apparently Brady thought it was a big deal because he cried the whole way home from his messiness. I know he's a boy, but I guess he doesn't want to be THAT dirty, right? Who does? Looking back on it, I can't believe I let him ride home like that. It's one of those moments that you have two options and both of them aren't good... so you just pick one. I think I would have rather made a mess of my dad's new carpet though. So sorry Brady. Horrible Mommy... part one.

Part Two - Dr. Gates's Office

After I picked Brady back up after the messiness... I took him to the doctor's office for his check up. I was really looking forward to this appointment! And in fact, I had just told Darlene how great Brady did with his shots last time and I wasn't worried too much about it at all this time. Little did I know that the shots would be the least of my worries.

After the nurse checked his pulse, weighed him, measured him, inspected him, we were waiting for Dr. Gates to come in. So, what else do you do but sit on the table with toys, right? Brady's gotten SUPER good at sitting up. I'm talking, he never falls anymore, in fact he cries when he wants down because he can't figure out how to get out of sitting up. So he was sitting up on the table. I was actually thinking that was better than laying there because he would roll over before anything else happened. (You can tell where I'm going with this, can't you?)

So, I was standing right by him, I had my hand on his leg while he was playing all nicely with his chains and everything. Dr. Gates came in and was admiring how great he was at sitting up.

"How long has he been sitting up like that? He's looks really comfortable sitting!"

"About two weeks, Dr. Gates. He's such a big...."

All of a sudden he wasn't there anymore. I'm talking a split second. I had my hand on his leg and I was on one side of the table. Dr. Gates was at the end of the table. The other side of the table was almost against the wall. But he wasn't there. He had reached for the cords on the wall that come off of the eye and ear thingy and fallen between the table and the wall. (The table is angled so it's not like he was stuck or anything...I just can't believe this happened). I think I froze. It felt like MINUTES went by before either Dr. Gates or I moved. Then FINALLY I ran around the other side and picked him up. (Um, is it weird that I was proud of him that he was in a 'crawling' position though? With his knees up under him and his arms pushed up?). He didn't make a peep for a bit, but it was probably because the air was knocked out of him and he was doing that terrible silent cry thing. That's how you know he's REALLY angry.

But the silence didn't last for too long. Then came tears. Crocodile tears. Lots of screaming and looking at me like, "WHO ARE YOU??? WHY WOULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?" I was crying. Dr. Gates handed me a tissue. (Isn't it great when you have an audience when something like this happens?) He proceeded to tell me stories of when his girls were little and one busted her chin open on the sidewalk when she was learning how to walk in the front yard on the grass, but he looked away for a second and she was face first on the concrete. Then about lifting one of his girls over his head, and she was cracking up, and then all of a sudden, she flipped her legs over and flew out of his hands and he thought she was paralized. (She's totally fine, by the way, not a broken bone or anything). He promised me that these things happen to everyone and that Brady would never remember this. (Although I think this morning he woke up and thought to himself, "Why does my head hurt? Oh, it's because my mommy didn't hold onto me and I fell off of the table at the doctor's office").

Dr. Gates then ran to get the nurses and told them to give him his shots before he calmed down, so he got it done all at once. I wouldn't have thought about that, but I thought it was probably a very wise decision. I stayed for about an hour, trying to feed him and get him to calm down. Dr. Gates came in to check on me several times (what a little muffin), and he told me that if it were going to happen anywhere, I should be glad it happened there. It saved me a visit to the doctor! He told me what to watch for the next time something like this happens. I said, "next time?" and he looked at me with a sad face and said, "He's a boy... you will have lots of next times in some shape or fashion."

When I left, I called my mom and said, "Please tell me this stuff happened to you!" I hope she doesn't mind me sharing this (because she was a fabulous mom!) but she told me that she knows we all were dropped, fell, electrocuted (that's another story) or something similar, multiple times. She told me Cam rolled down the stairs at least twice. (I am cracking up while I'm writing this by the way). She then called me back later and left me a message and this is what it said... almost word for word:

"Becky. I just remembered that when Katie (my sister) was about two years old, we were leaving the grocery store and she fell out of the grocery cart onto the pavement in the parking lot. I hope that makes you feel better. Love you!" (Katie, if you're reading this... surprise!)

What are moms for? To share their own horror stories and make you feel better? Exactly.

Now, I know there are a few moms out there (who shall remain nameless) who have had moments like this, and I so appreciate you sharing those with me! This morning, I'm absolutely exhausted (from the emotional wreck that was yesterday), but the B-Man is doing great, he's happy and he's taking a great nap for me already. Dr. Gates called Jeff twice last night while he was in class and didn't leave a message... I'm thinking it was to check on me, not Brady. He said that Brady's fine, but I was the one that he was worried about. It definitely shook me up.

Ahhhh.... the joys and fears of mommyhood. Gotta Love It.

Happy Friday everyone!

(Here are pictures from yesterday afternoon when we got home. He would play and then cry, play and then cry. See the scrape on his face? That's from me!!!!!!!! I guess I've just got to realize that there is no way to protect him from absolutely everything, and he's definitely tougher than I give him credit for!)