Day VI

Where did the weekend go? Is it really fair that we are on for five and off for two?

Another weekend, another trip to Target and Kroger. Whoo-hoo! Walmart got vetoed by Husband. Hate is an understatement for how he feels about that store. He says, "It just has a weird feel.'' Whatever that means.

Jack -- fortunately -- loves running errands. He stares and flirts at all the passing women... screams at anyone under five and loves to throw his shoes. Luckily, this trip he kept his flashy sandals on the whole time. Nothing worse than a shoeless kid in a discount store.

Husband worked Saturday night. After a long afternoon nap together, Jack and I had all night. Sometimes, honestly, this overwhelms me. He is constantly bored and can't really tell me what he wants to do so I just have to guess:

We played with his mini-basketball net for a while.

We stared at each other in the mirror, making funny faces.

We had a laughing contest.

We watched two videos. (Yes, we watch videos. Any person who looks down on that doesn't have a kid.)

We played with his beach ball.

We ate his veggie crackers.

I then ran out of ideas. So, I decided to practice walking with him.

It was a winner. We walked my tiny townhouse until I could no longer stand up straight. He took his giant steps and laughed and boasted. I cheered. He got courageous. He stood on his own for what seemed like a lifetime. Jack built up his confidence. You could almost see him thinking, "I can do this! I can actually do this!"

Of course, he had some tumbles. He tried to cry, quickly would look at me and I would reassure him he was fine and then he'd get right back up. (By the way, this is an essential Mama trick that goes back to the days of Sister. If you make a big deal about a spill, the baby will cry. Laugh it off, the baby will too. Husband has not learned this yet effectively.)

By this point in the night (around 9 p.m.) Jack was feeling pretty good. I was feeling pretty good. Disney's Tarzan was on and he was diggin' it. I needed to rotate the laundry. With a quick wave in the mirror to each other, we headed downstairs.

Cat was immediately out when he heard Jack. The two greeted each other -- Jack with a loud shriek, Cat with a meow -- and then we turned to the dryer. I put Jack down, he was holding onto the door of the dryer. Everything good. Then he crawled into the laundry basket giggling in delight. I continued to pull out the warm clothes, dumping them on his head. Laughter aplenty when all of the sudden, BAM!! The baby falls back and slams his head on the cement floor.

Long pause. He looks up at me confused. I saw all of his confidence wash away with the immediate flow of tears. This was not a blow-off bump. I quickly scooped him up, abandoning the clean laundry and tried to console him. It was awful. The noise of his head slamming repeated over and over in my head. I rushed him upstairs and then I heard giggling. Apparently, it was funny when Mama freaked out and ran up the stairs. I tried to look at his eyes to see if they were dilating.

That was not about to happen. So for the next half hour, Jack sat on my lap watching Tarzan while I freaked out trying to sneak peaks at his eyes.

I finally called Husband. He freaked out and really didn't make me feel any better. He immediately told me to call my dad. (Grandpa seems to know about everything. He is a dentist afterall!) I agreed.

That's when Jack grabbed my cellphone.

In the light of the little screen, I saw his teeny pupils fill with delight (and dilate). Relief washed over me. I let him chew the phone for the rest of the night. Hell, he deserved it.

Being a Mama is hard work.