Sometimes I feel like I have this whole mom thing figured out. And more often, I find myself wondering why in the world God would entrust Eileen to my
bumbling parental efforts. Usually every bump is followed by a confidence booster so that I am on what is pretty much an even keel. However, this week has been tough.
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| Eileen would say that this has been the worst. week. ever. |
On Tuesday, Eileen and I were having a
great morning. We had played all morning, she had taken a nice nap, we'd gone for a walk, and I was just about to feed Eileen lunch. I prepared a balanced lunch of rice cereal, a baby food fruit, and a baby food veggie, popped it in the microwave for thirty seconds on 50% power so that she wouldn't have to eat room-temperature food, and strapped Eileen into her high chair. Then I began to feed Eileen her lunch. And she started
Screaming.
Shrieking. I had forgotten to check the food temperature or stir the food. And I burned Eileen's mouth. And she screamed and cried for a good half hour. She refused to let me feed her for the rest of the day- but she did trust David to give her her lunch and supper.
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| Eating for Daddy. He doesn't burn the baby. |
By yesterday evening, I'd gotten over that scare. Eileen seemed to have rebounded and all was back to normal, even if I was still a little shaken.
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| Eileen playing with her "money." |
On Wednesday morning, Eileen and I got up and I fed her breakfast. She was a little scared to eat at first, but she quickly began to trust me to feed her. After Eileen's breakfast, I dressed her in a onesie, drank a diet coke, and we set out in the stroller for a nice walk around Beatrice before it got too hot to be outside.
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| "Let's go, mom!" |
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| Ready to cruise! |
We usually walk with our dogs Beau and Lucy. This serves two purposes: (1) It allows me to exercise the dogs and (2) My dogs will scare other dogs away from the stroller. We had made it halfway through town and had just gotten to the top of the only hill in Beatrice when Lucy tried to go into someone's house (the front door was open to allow a breeze to enter). I let go of the stroller to go after Lucy.
When I looked back, the stroller was RACING down the steep bank. And then it flipped. Right onto its front, with Eileen strapped into it. A moment (that felt like a year) passed, and then I heard the frightened wailing. I raced to the stroller, afraid of what I was going to see.
I got Eileen out and picked her up and checked her out. No blood. No broken bones. Just some clay on top of her head, on her chest, and on her legs. She seemed to be scared to death, but physically okay. I held Eileen close and picked up my stroller. We walked the short distance to Finklea's Store, where I found Deda (David's grandfather) and asked him to give us a ride home (because Eileen was not about to let me put her back in the stroller).
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Eileen at home right after the accident.
Notice the clay stain on the front of her onesie. |
Even though David made fun of me for being overly worried, I insisted that we take Eileen to see the doctor because she'd had quite a fall. Dr. Williams confirmed that Eileen is okay (whew!).
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| Eileen and me after we'd cleaned up and "recovered." |
Thankfully, Eileen has survived my many mishaps. I hope that today will be a better day for us- I don't know how many more mommy slip-ups Eileen can tolerate!
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