Today was a great day. Today, my hubs was promoted to Chief Warrant Officer. He was sworn into office by the Commandant of the Coast Guard... on the Commandant's plane. It was a BIG deal. I can't say enough how proud I am of him! The boys had on little Coast Guard uniforms, Eric in a suit (looking as handsome as ever) so since this was such a big deal- I had to up my game. I wore a nice dress- for the first time in probably a year, with platform sandals. A serious upgrade from my normal jeans, shirt, and sneaks... and lately- compression socks. Here we are... Team Horst- all fancy'd up!
The ceremony went great and we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. We picked Outback as our destination, and personally, I was pretty excited about a nice dinner out to celebrate Eric's promotion. On our way there it started to rain... In a horror movie this would be the point where the girl starts to go down the steps to the dark creepy basement where you just know something terrible is about to happen.
Still drizzling, we pull in to the restaurant and I get Cooper J out of his car seat while everyone else gets out and we head in. The hostess leads the way to our table and I am following behind still carrying Cooper J. Again, thinking back to that horror movie... the girl is now at the bottom of the steps and in the shadows you see the guy with the big knife standing behind her and you want to yell- TURN AROUND YOU BIG DUMMIE!!
We are walking toward the table and get to where the other tables are and every parent's nightmare comes true. My platform sandals, wet from walking across the parking lot, along with the off centered balance from being 7 months pregnant, even more off balance by carrying Cooper J... I. FELL. DOWN.
Not like a little stumble, a full on FALL. Flopped to my knees and elbows trying not to crush Cooper or Baby Dylan- but the worst part was that despite my best efforts, Cooper slipped out of my hands as my elbows hit the ground and his little head made a thump sound on the floor. I am pretty sure that his body was already on the floor at the time of the thump, but I can still hear that sound echoing in my head. It sounds a lot like "You are the worst Mom ever, thump. You are the worst Mom ever, thump" All I can think now is "technically" I dropped my kid on his head. In that moment, the whole restaurant stopped. Everything stopped and everyone stared. I heard that gasping "ahhh", the "Oh my gosh's", the "Oh no!'s". As if the knowledge that I had just fallen, unsure if my dress flew up and the whole restaurant saw my "goods"- which at 7 months pregnant with my 3rd child, to be honest, are not that "good", and my kids head just thumped the floor wasn't bad enough, I was MORTIFIED. Most parents think that if you fall down while holding your kid that you would naturally just tuck and roll and your precious baby would magically inflate his bubble wrap coating and anyone who saw would stand up and cheer for you and your natural instincts. You take a bow and continue on like nothing happened. Or better yet, you start to fall, toss your kid in the air, tuck and roll yourself and then pop up in time to catch the kid who is now happy and laughing. Well, it all happened so fast that I had no real thoughts of tucking nor rolling, so I can attest that there is a slight natural instinct not to totally pancake your child. The "thump" proved, however, that Cooper J missed out on the magic bubble wrap coating that pops out when necessary. Dang it.
It really wasn't that bad- it seems much worse in my head and I felt terrible for Cooper- I mean he now has that excuse when he is older- "it's not my fault- my mom dropped me on my head when I was a baby". Again, dang it.
The waiter brought a bag of unnecessary ice and the manager came and checked on us... twice. She even wanted my information so she could check on us to make sure we were ok. Honestly, I wanted to think that she was genuinely concerned because she was really nice, but I also thought that she saw a pregnant chick holding a baby "slip and fall" in her restaurant. I could see the panicked "oh crap she might sue" look in her eye. I wanted to reassure her that we were not going to sue them for my lack of balance accentuated by shoes that I despite my best effort couldn't walk in... but I just said, "No, we are fine, I promise!"
Overall, physically, Cooper J and I are fine. I can not say the same about my pride. It is hurt. I feel like a bad Mom. I now can add this to the list of train wreck events that pepper my journey in motherhood. And for the record, I will be wearing flats for not only the duration of this pregnancy, but probably for the rest of my life. I have lost my fancy shoe "girl card". That is what happens when you fall down in public...
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