Falling Down is Part of Life

Right? Every kid falls down. Its how they learn. But it doesn't make it any easier on the parents.

Yesterday I took Bunny to an open gym at Swiss Turners Gymnastics. She loves it. She runs around like a crazy girl, bouncing on trampolines, jumping in foam pits, walking on balance beams and hanging from bars (while I am running just to keep up). She even has a little friend, Claire, who is three and has taught Bunny to climb up a ladder onto a platform and jump into the foam pit (well I help her jump off by holding her waist and dropping her into the pit). I like the pit, its full of foam blocks. You can't really get hurt in foam.

But yesterday Bunny and Claire were running around and they wanted to go jump on this little trampoline. To get there you had to step over this metal bar. I've always thought it was weird that the bar was there but it is. Well Bunny didn't quite make it and she fell. On to the bar. With her face. While I was standing not even 5 feet away.

I immediately started to panic. I had all of these scenarios in my head. She broke something, she lost her teeth, we'd have to go to the hospital. She started screaming and when I got to her I could see blood coming out of her mouth. Even though I was panicking inside, I remained calm on the outside. I scooped her up in a big hug and immediately took her to the front desk for ice before heading in the bathroom to wash her off and assess the damage.

By the time we got to the desk, I could tell that she had bitten her lip. That's okay, right? Kids bite their lips all the time. I still wasn't sure about her teeth. They handed me some paper towels and after wiping her off I could tell all of the blood was from her lip. Thank goodness!! They didn't have ice, but they did have freezie pops, which Bunny put directly on her lip.

When we got to the bathroom to clean up, Bunny discovered that she could eat the freezie pop. So she stopped crying and demanded to eat it. Ok that is a good sign. So we sat down just outside the gym to eat the pop. She was happy as a clam with her freezie pop. Other kids were staring at it jealously and she just laughed. Laughing is a good sign that she wasn't seriously hurt.

When we were finished I asked her if she wanted to go home. She said no and wanted to go back in the gym. She proceeded to run around slightly less crazily for the next 20 minutes. When it was time to leave she cried again because she didn't want to go home.

Even though she wasn't badly hurt (she just has a slightly fat lip) I still felt terrible. Like I was a bad mother for letting this happen to her. All the moms came up to me to make sure she was okay and I couldn't tell if they were judging me or not. But in my head I knew they weren't, they were just thankful she was okay and it wasn't their kid.

I know this could have happened anywhere, at the park, in the backyard or even in our house. She is going to fall and she is going to get hurt and that is okay. Its just lucky that I was there and not Bubs. He would have started hyperventalating and crying if he saw her get hurt. He would rather her be wrapped in bubble wrap so she doesn't get hurt.

Bunny has mentioned this incident a few times but really all she cares about was the popcicle she got at the end. To her that was the most important thing. And I guess it was to me as well because it shows that she is resliant.