The Second Story Window...

I had one of those moments today. Those Mom moments, when your whole world comes screeching to a halt – and everything going on in your busy day, that you thought was so important it couldn’t possibly wait, is instantly not important at all. It’s not important because the ONLY THING that IS important during one of those Mom moments is that your babies are okay. When one of your children is seriously hurt or is in dire trouble every sensor in your body goes off. Every sweat gland is working overtime. Adrenalin pumps through your system giving you that super power to do whatever it takes to make it all okay. No Mom wishes for these kind of moments.

Mine, today, had a happy ending. But it just as easily could have gone the other way.

This afternoon, while playing quietly in his room upstairs, Ryder fell out of his second story window and hit the ground below.

WHAT!?! WHAT KIND OF MOM ALLOWS SOMETHING LIKE THIS TO HAPPEN TO ONE OF HER BABIES!??!!

I feel awful, and have already run out to Home Depot to get all the available window and screen locks to prevent something like this from being “easy” to do again. We’ve talked to both Landin and Ryder a thousand times about the dangers of playing next to the window. We have casement windows in their bedroom, and we even removed the handles and put them on a shelf so the kids couldn’t get to them. But kids are smart. Smart enough to watch where we put the handles, go and get them when we are not looking, and re-install them.

Here is how it happened:
We are working hard on potty training Ryder, so today he spent the morning at home in the nude. The theory is, no clothing makes it easier to run to the bathroom when needed, and not having a diaper there makes the child more aware of an impending accident. So, Ryder is playing quietly (naked) in his bedroom, and Brice runs downstairs to help out a furniture repair person who is working on our couch in our garage. He left Ryder alone in his room for maybe 10 minutes. No big deal right? WRONG.

I was sitting at my desk, typing an email, when I heard the faint sound of crying outside. “Humm?” I thought to myself, “who is crying outside?” My first thought was that the furniture repair lady had been bitten by our dog, who seems to be becoming increasingly protective lately. Then I hear the front door open, and the crying gets louder. I KNEW that cry - - It was Ryder’s. Not distinctive in any way that I can describe in words – yet I knew without a doubt it was him. I turn away from my computer, and head downstairs, only to be met by a naked Ryder, dirty from head to toe, tears streaming down his face, arms outstretched to me. I rush down the stairs with my arms out to him asking “what happened, what happened Ryder?”

Sobbing, Ryder cried, “I fell… I fell… the window…Maaaa Mmmaaaa!”

I literally screamed. A guttural scream that you don’t plan and can’t explain. That scream brought Brice running in from the garage. Now I’m holding Ryder. He’s shaking in my arms (or is that me shaking?) and I take a deep breath and tell Brice “Ryder fell out of the window.” There are two pictures burned into my mind from this afternoon’s events. The first is the image of Ryder naked with arms outstretched to me the minute I realized he’d fallen from the window. The second is the look on Brice’s face when he processed my words “Ryder fell out of the window.”

Brice rushed to us and we both quickly checked Ryder out, looking for injuries. He seemed okay on the outside. But we were in a panic (who wouldn’t be). We sat Ryder down on the couch and asked him where it hurt. It seemed like he could move everything, but his thigh was bleeding from a long scrape, and he had a few other spots already bruising.

We quickly but gently got him dressed, hopped in the car and rushed off to have him examined at the Urgent Care in town.

Turned out Ryder was perfectly intact – no broken bones or fractures, only a few cuts and bruises. The Doctor told us several times how lucky we were that he walked away from the fall. He said, “Someone up there was watching out for this little guy” - - don’t we know it! I swear every doctor and nurse in the building came by to see Ryder while we were there… “Is this the young man who tried to fly?” – “Are you the mini-Superman we heard about?” – “I heard you were playing superhero and tried to fly today?” Ryder was unmoved, turning his head away from all the attention. “Can we go home now?” he asked.

Here is a video interview with Ryder after we got home from the hospital (Sorry it's sideways, I can't figure out how to rotate it!) :



In the few quiet moments that Brice and I have had since the event we have looked at each other – and in making eye contact communicated an unspoken thanks that Ryder is okay. Tonight at dinner, I saw Brice looking at Ryder as he slurped his noodles, sucking them in while they slapped his chin, and I saw Brice tear-up. I felt the exact same way. We are so incredibly blessed that Ryder is safe, and was sitting there misbehaving at the dinner table, as if nothing had happened. Thank you God.