Falling Head First.

This morning we went to the pool! It was fun except Tiger is afraid of the pool, sort of.  He didn't want to get in.  He just wanted to sit on the chair and watch.  I took Blanket out of the stroller and away from his nap so that I could play with him in the pool.  He was fine until I took him out of his tube for a minute.  Then he only wanted to be held.  I knew that skipping the nap was now a mistake.

I took Tiger to the bathroom and then we wandered over to where our neighbor was sitting with her kids.  I wanted to ask her where she got the swim vest for her son.  Tiger cannot swim, and I can't hold on to both of them in the pool at the same time.  She told me she got it at Target and I figured we could go there later.

I did attempt to play in the pool again and Tiger started to do some splashing and stuff, but Blanket was going nuts because of the lack of sleep so we just decided to go home earlier than I had planned.

Later came and we went to Target.  While I was looking through the totally trashed display of life vests Tiger says he NEEDS to go potty.  Blanket is being a little fussy (nap time again).  I tear off in the direction of the bathroom.  Tiger is in the basket of the cart dancing around.  I didn't notice that he was sort of leaning out while dancing and so when I started to turn he wobbled.  Quickly, I stopped the cart.  I was hoping that he would catch his balance, but no, he fell, head first out of the shopping cart.

It was a little surreal.  I saw him heading down in this dive (think "rocket man") and the next thing he is on the floor on his back.  I couldn't tell if he hit his head, or what, but I got him back up so fast he didn't start crying until I was holding him.  And the crying seemed much more like scared crying.  Match that with the lack of impact marks and I don't know what to say.  We went to shoes and sat down for a minute (until the crying stopped) and then proceeded to the potty.

On the way out of the bathroom I was trying to negotiate the cart out of the auto-closing door and the door pushed the cart and Tiger's finger against the door frame.  More crying.  More screaming.  Add tired Blanket to this and I got a whole bunch of people shooting me dirty looks like I am some bad parent.

Eventually, we did go back and determine that they didn't have what we were looking for. 

On the way back through the store and back to the car, Tiger kept standing up and wiggling.  I kept thinking he was going to fall out.  While I was putting Blanket in the car, Tiger said, "Out.  Get out of the cart."  I look over to see him with one leg half  over the edge and a determination to finish what he started.  I loudly encouraged him to find his way back down.  

I decided that a trip across the street to Sports Authority would be worth it to see if I could find this swim vest.  I did find it fairly easily.  They were having a sale on other swimwear and so I wanted to look around for a minute.  I must have warned Tiger six or seven times about falling out of the cart again!  Then, in the parking lot, I saw him trying to bail AGAIN!  

I guess he wasn't hurt badly enough the first time.  Maybe he decided that the pain was tolerable.  Maybe he wants his life to flash before my eyes over and over.  Glenn Beck was right.  Once they learn to walk you're on suicide watch for 5 years or so.