We were in my brother-in-law's back yard celebrating his oldest child's birthday. There were many people there; all my wife's siblings and their families, her parents, and as many from my brother-in-law's wife's family (whom I've met a couple of times over the last several years, but haven't have a conversations with any of them, if you can imagine that). There was cake.
In the mean time, a couple of my nephews (born to my wife's next younger sister) were jumping on the trampoline a few yards away, along with too many other children. It was dangerous (and some know well that this trampoline has had some issues since being placed at this certain location--it has some kind of personal vendetta, apparently). The four-year-old and seven-year old nephews looked my way, and I recall the older one declaring that the younger one wanted to get down. I jumped up to the rescue to play the good uncle.
Acting kind of like a robot with its arms stiffly stretched out toward the four-year-old, I methodically paced to the trampoline. Not able to resist the opportunity for a tease, at the last second I turned toward the observing seven-year-old on my right and grabbed him instead. While I twisted to my right to place him on the ground, I heard a slightly-muffled thump. To my left, the four-year-old was lying flat on his face in the lawn, too stunned to cry (for a brief moment), probably wondering what kind of an idiot I was to miss such a direct connection. Oops.
Of course I could not stifle the crying (though I could tell there wasn't a serious injury--this half-cartilaged creature had bounced back from worse), and his mother (I think it was her, I was a little thrown off to perceive everything going on accurately at this point) came to sooth him, giving me nothing to hide behind or a way to compensate for my actions. Fortunately another nephew (two-years-old) went running around to the front of the house so I went to rescue him, resisting any potential for possible teases that might come my way. I grabbed him, went through the front door, found a couch to hide on and waited for the party to disperse. It took a while.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Sadly, this was quite hilarious!!
It was a funny coincidence, given the recent accidents mentioned. No harm, no foul.
It was pretty funny, and I had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder (and for rescuing my son from the front yard)!
I am laughing out loud at this story... and it was my son that landed face first on the ground! I wish I had been watching what happened so I could see if his expression changed half way down. I actually was not the one that came to get him, I think that was your wife. I was the mean mom sitting, eating my cake, knowing that he would be fine in a minute.
In the state of Utah the statute of limitations on child negligence is 6 years. I am waiting that long for you to write a book and make some good money before the lawsuit!! At least I know he can afford college now. (you might want to invest in prepaid legal now)
Post a Comment