Moonlight Reflections

This could have been a very different post. I don't even want to think about all the ways it could've been different. Steve and I were watching "American Idol" last night at 9:15 when we heard a horrible thumping, rolling, make-your-heart-drop-into-your-stomach noise. We knew what had happened even as we raced to the steps. Adam fell down the stairs. Our best guess is that he came out of his room to hang out/spy on us at the top of the steps and fell asleep there. Then he apparently rolled or moved in his sleep and took the tumble.

I'll give you the end of the story here to answer the most important question (and let the grandparents breathe): Adam is fine. No concussion, no injuries. Just a brief bloody nose. We did have to take him to the children's ER downtown to rule out a concussion. At first Adam was scared and disoriented. Of course -- poor kid fell asleep and next thing he knew found himself painfully awake in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. But by 10:15, when we were getting him dressed to go to the ER, it was clear to me and Steve that he was fine. As I bundled Adam into the car, drove downtown, sat in the waiting room, met with the doctor, and brought our boy home -- all during the hours when our little family should have been tucked snugly in bed -- my mind was racing.

• I fear that Adam is beginning to equate mother/son bonding with midnight in the ER in the dead of winter. It's sort of becoming a yearly tradition.

Exhibit A: December 2005, 4 days old, jaundice.

Exhibit B: February 2008, 2 years old, croup.

Exhibit C: March 2009 (he's cutting it close to spring here but helpfully picked a freezing wintery night), 3 years old, possible concussion.

Adam did skip the ER the year he was 1 to go straight to the hospital with RSV. I do appreciate that he's offering a variety of reasons to go midnight bonding with me. Nice that he wants to keep us guessing. I would prefer a different bonding method altogether, however.

• Children's Services will probably be visiting us shortly. While we were in the waiting room last night, I asked Adam if he remembered what happened. He said, "Yes. Andrew pushed me down the stairs." !!! Then he proceeded to tell the triage nurse the same a few minutes later. I assured her that the 5-year-old brother was not responsible for this particular mishap and was, in fact, sleeping in his own bed when it happened. It probably appeared fishy, though.

• Gangee (Steve's mom) should be thanking her lucky stars that she was not mentioned last night. Years ago Andrew tripped down the last couple of the basement stairs at the grandparents', and Poppa jokingly asked Andrew if Gangee pushed him down the stairs. A year and a half later, Andrew was still talking in all seriousness about the time Gangee pushed him down the stairs. Gangee, I believe if you had been implicated in another stair-pushing incident, Children's Services would be at your door. And probably the FBI since you would have had to cross state lines to commit the crime.

• To the owner of the apartment complex on Monroe Road which has been on the news as the scene of more than one murder over the years, I would respectfully submit the following: Hire a better PR firm. "Your Journey Ends Here" is not the best slogan for your complex. Yikes. (I know this has nothing to do with Adam, but you notice everything when you're driving down the road after midnight with no traffic.)

• Last night's consult with the ER doctor totally reminded me of one of my favorite movies, A Christmas Story. You know the scene when Ralphie wants to ask Santa for the Red Ryder BB gun? He waits and waits and waits in line, enduring stares from the weird kid, rude helper elves, and annoying Wizard of Oz characters trying to break his concentration. He finally gets to Santa and asks for the gun, only to have Santa say, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" Same idea. After the big scare of seeing our little boy pathetic and crumpled at the bottom of the steps, driving in the freezing dead of night to the hospital, and (hopefully) convincing the triage nurse that Adam was not the victim of fraternal abuse, we finally got to see the doctor, who basically said, "Don't fall down the stairs again, kid." And honestly? We are grateful that those were the words we heard.