Tonight I took Jake to our local Chick-fil-a for dinner. Hubby had to work late and I needed to stop by CVS (which I won't bore you with my savings, but I had some GREAT ones today) so I decided Jake and I would go out on the town (plus I had a coupon for a free kids meal).
Jake and I ate our nuggets and then I decided to let him play in the Play land area. There was an area which was designated for toddlers which had items for Jake to turn and fun mirrors. This entertained him for about 5 seconds when he decided to climb on the slide. I thought I'd let him play for a minute. He began to climb up higher and higher, so high I could not see him in the tube of the slide any longer. I began to panic instantly. I knew I could not climb up after him or else I would be paying Chick-fil-a for a lot more than a few chicken nuggets.
I watched his shadow closely and saw him get to the top of the slide. I hoped he would just turn around and slide down, but of course he did not. He continued to crawl through the tubes, 15 feet above the ground.
Occasionally I could see him through the clear areas of the tubes and I would occasionally hear him talk or say "Mom" when he was responding to my scared calls to him to come. back. down. the. slide.
There were three little girls playing in the play land while Jake was and the oldest was probably about 5. She was very responsible and was my helper in watching Jake. I am certain she saw the terror on my face and heard the nervousness in my voice and she would occasionally say "He's in the red one" and then a couple minutes later she would say, "He's in the blue one now!" and so on.
She was an angel to me tonight! And was nearly the only thing that kept me from having a stroke as my blood pressure rised rapidly the longer Jake was playing 15 feet above the ground and I could not get to him!
After playing about 15 minutes Jake decided to begin to head toward the slide and the steps to come down out of the play land. He could not figure out the steps and again I could not get to him due to the tube around the steps, so I attempted to explain to him how to get down, which to a 21 month old who is having the TIME OF HIS LIFE, this is total gibberish.
Finally my little 5 year old friend was able to coerce Jake to the slide and down the tube. I was able to grab him at the end before he ran back up it and out the door we went. I was NOT going to let him get away from me again.
As we were walking out to the car Jake was talking and talking. I could not understand what he was saying until he said "kids" (at least I think that's what he said). I believe he was telling me about what a good time he had playing with the other kids.
He was so sweet and he was so happy playing in the play land. I guess I am going to have to get some blood pressure medicine and accept the fact that my little man is getting so big and independent.
*Sigh*
This motherhood thing is an emotional job and I'm only 21 months into it.
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3 comments:
Oh boy! Little Jacob is getting a little bigger, eh?! I don't want to think about Elli getting out of sight and me experiencing that. Glad you made it though. :) You might want to look into anxiety pills ( and then let me know what you find out ) ;)
It sure IS emotional!! That must have been terrifying! I know what it's like to not be able to get to your child. Not quite the same, though, but one night the building which houses our church nursery was locked. I couldn't get to Lance in there, and while I knew he was perfectly safe, I couldn't get to him, the worker couldn't hear me knocking, and I nearly had a heart attack right there. Fortunately, friend J went around to the back of the building and knocked on the window (which I forgot the nursery had. Silly me!)
It's amazing how other kids will help you out-especially if they have younger siblings, they know just what to do. Now I have enough kids I can send in a bigger one after them!
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