I like to cook dinner while Elle is having her afternoon snack. The other day I had her in her high chair...eating her diced nectarine and cheerios (favorites in our house) and I turned my back for exactly enough time to remove 2 spoons from the dishwasher and put them away.
By the time I turned around to continue our conversation, she was standing up. In the high chair. Looking for a way to jump over the back. I promptly strapped her back in and reinstated the shoulder harness that I had previously deemed cruel and unusual and *not necessary* because we already used the lap belt with between the legs strap and the locking tray with between the legs security feature.
How did little Elle Houdini do it? I don't know. I know that now she is on lock down in that thing with 3 point safety restraints now. I have never left her alone in it. Usually I position it so that I can see her while I am cooking...so we can talk and stuff. Terrifying.
The other day we were at the zoo with some friends. We had 3 adults and 3 children. Baby Elle...Little Guy**, who is 2 and Mama's Helper**, who is 4 and 1/2. Mama's Helper is a great kid to take places. She is really well behaved in public and causes no stress. Little Guy is super sweet and also a *good* kid. Baby Elle goes along to get along.
We were wrapping up our day and I asked Mama's Helper if she needed to go to the bathroom before we got in the car. One adult stayed with Elle, one stayed with Little Guy. Little Guy was posing for a picture in those cute cut out things that you put your face in...you know, the ones that make it look like his head was on a baby eagle! Sooooo cute! I love those things. I had just taken Mama's Helper's picture and sent it to her mom!
All of a sudden. In less then a second. Seriously, in the time it takes to say smile. Little Guy's head was stuck in the cut out. This cut out has been at the zoo for 50 years...and our Little Guy got his head stuck.
The zoo keepers wanted to lotion him up to get him out.
I got in a fight with a couple "not nice people" as I called them to their faces who tried to take pictures of Little Guy stuck in the eagle's next.
After about 25 minutes of Little Guy's mom keeping him as calm as she could (she was GREAT by the way), me keeping Baby Elle and Mama's Helper busy and away...and Little Guy's aunt running interference with the zoo keepers...FDNY showed up. That is when New York's Bravest cut our Little Guy out of the eagle's nest with a saws-all and a tee shirt covering his head.
Little Guy was SO BRAVE. When they got him out the fireman told him he could have anything he wanted for being so brave. Little Guy just wanted to go home. Good choice Little Guy, it was time to go home.
So all I am saying is, kids move fast! Too fast for old mommies. Way too fast for old mommies. So us old mommies need to adapt and stay focused...and when stuff we don't expect happens...we just gotta adapt and keep calm. I have found that screaming like a wild howler monkey doesn't help any situation...unless you are trying to talk to the howler monkey's at the zoo.
**Names changed to protect the identities of Little Guy and Mama's Helper.
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