Prone To Drops

I had a pretty big scare yesterday morning. We started a new routine this week with Kim heading back to work, one that calls for me getting up almost an hour before I'm used to - but one that allows me to spend about a half-hour with the baby before taking him next door for the day. Yesterday I learned a valuable lesson.

I had the baby laying on his back on the bed while I got ready for work. He started to fuss some, so I figured I'd prop him up against a pillow so he could watch the lights on the television. This usually makes him somewhat happy as we would seem to have a 3-month-old couch potato on our hands. I figured it was safe for me to leave him like that for a few minutes while I went into the bathroom to throw some goop in my hair and finish what passes for me as getting prettied up. Something told me I should go back in and check on the baby, and low-and-behold I re-entered the bedroom to find little Zachary face down with his face hanging off the bed with his head precariously close to the night stand. I didn't quite freak out, but I did snatch him up and proceeded to check his face and head while apologizing to him profusely. He wasn't crying, in fact he had this little mischievous look about him when I picked him up.

I was pretty upset with myself after allowing this to happen. I felt like a truly horrible Dad. This incident came on the heels of the Z-Man slamming his head into my jaw the night before. Again, I believe he was okay but it must have hurt him. That being said, I was beating myself up pretty good over it. Then, as the morning went on - I learned about a very interesting phenomenon. Apparently, what I did in the morning isn't considered that big a deal. In fact, in broaching the subject with a number of people, it is apparently very common for people to actually either drop their children or at the very least, allow them to fall from furniture. No fewer than five parents I talked to within two hours of the near-miss told me it wasn't a big deal and proceeded to tell me about events related to their children or their friends' children falling to the floor from beds, couches, swings and what-have-you.

While this did make me feel slightly better about my faux-pas, it made me wonder. First, it made me want to ask my parents how many times I was allowed to test gravity. Second, it made me wonder just how many people have been affected by these seemingly all-too-common mishaps. Perhaps it isn't the Republicans, or the dual-party system that is at fault for what is wrong in the world. Maybe it's a world-wide pandemic of careless parents like me that have flooded the world with generations of brain-damaged youth. Nah, it's the Republicans... But, I can't blame them for my near-miss. Guess I won't be leaving the Z-Man unattended anymore...

[Currently Listening: Murder City Devils - "Johnny Thunders"]