Bumps and Bruises

We just got back yesterday from five days with the family. I love Christmas. There is just something about it even without the gifts. It makes me feel all warm inside. Last Christmas, for reasons I won't get into right now, was a disaster. Family conflict made it into the worse Christmas I ever experienced. We eventually moved passed that and were really looking forward to this year's festivities. My son Wyatt is now 2 1/2 so we expected that while he didn't quite understand Santa it would be great fun watching him unwrap his gifts and eat all the foods he normally isn't allowed. Christmas eve started off well enough. We went to my sister-in-laws and her girls put on a little show for us. We were heading upstairs to eat. I sat my son at the table and went off to get him a plate. In that short amount of time, maybe seconds, he got off the chair where he was and climbed onto another one. Normally, no big deal but there was a staircase behind that one that had no railing. When he got onto that chair, it tilted and he went flying. All I saw was my angel flying out of the chair. It seemed like it was in slow motion. My husband was downstairs and saw him tumble down the stairs. It was absolutely horrifying. I ran down the stairs as fast as I could but it didn't feel fast enough. Those seconds felt like hours. I got down there and my husband was holding him. He was crying but seemed fine. To be safe we brought him to the hospital. By then he was running around like a crazy person getting into trouble. I never thought him getting into everything would feel so good. My mind keeps replaying the event and each time I replay it it gets worse and worse. To be honest, I'm not sure I can even say for sure what happened. I know it couldn't have been as bad as I think it was since he barely had a bruise. You can't help but feel like you are the worse parent in the world after that. Since then, we've heard several stories of nieces and nephews that have fallen and bumped their heads. Stitches and so forth. Its comforting in a way because you realize that you can't protect them 100%. Things are going to happen. I think what this did to us is made it real and forced us for a second to imagine what life would be like had something horrible happened. I don't ever want to live in that world. I'd say that we got lucky but I think my little guy has an angel... We did salvage Christmas after that. My husband had a difficult time enjoying himself but I focused instead on the fact that our son was perfectly fine and I wanted him to have the time of his life celebrating.