Something very scary happened to me last Friday that, luckily, had a happy ending that I want to share. It was a day of learning valuable lessons, so here goes!
After a long playdate-filled morning, I'd planned to take the kids swimming with Grandma at her neighborhood pool. It was a blazing hot day outside, and I was really looking forward to taking the kids in the water. Everything started out great, and the kids were really enjoying themselves, with us, in the special kiddie water park area. Zachary, who has always been more timid than I imagined a little boy to be, seemed to put aside his fears for the day and was showing off some newfound bravery, going down the waterslide on his own over and over and over again. Ashley, who is usually not one to let her brother outdo her, was the timid one, wanting to be held constantly while Zachary couldn't get enough of the action.
After Zachary grew tired of the slide, we all moved to the other side of the kiddie area, toward the "beach", where there is still just over a foot of water. The water was no more than waist-deep on Zachary, and he had never had any trouble maneuvering around in it before. Grandma and I sat down with Ashley and enjoyed watching her play, and even though there was a lifeguard on duty 10 feet or so away from him, I kept my eye on Zachary almost the entire time. I had seen him grab one of those pool "noodles" and didn't think anything of it at the time. Ashley was splashing around to her heart's content when I realized I'd let myself become distracted. Sure that Zachary was having a blast, too, I turned just to check on him. Instead, I found him, chest slightly propped up on the noodle, kicking his legs and paddling his arms just like he'd learned to do in swimming lessons just one month ago. I was amazed at first. "Wow!" I thought. "Is he really doing this all on his own?!" Skeptical, I stood there for several seconds just watching him go. That is when I noticed that he was swallowing mouthfuls of water and fighting to keep his head above the water. He had quite a grip on that noodle, which, I realized later, was probably the only thing (other than a 3 year-old's under-developed problem-solving skills) that was preventing him from just dropping the noodle and picking himself up. Only a few feet away from him, I quickly reached out and pulled him from the water. Just then, the lifeguard walked over and tried to hand me his life preserver...as if that was going to help! "Thanks, man...a little too late," I thought to myself. With Zachary safe in my arms, I carried him over to where Grandma and Ashley were sitting and just held him tight, doing all I could to make sure he knew that I had him and that he was okay, but feeling terribly guilty...like I'd willfully neglected my own son and almost let him drown right there in the kiddie pool with me sitting there thinking, "Wow, he really paid attention during those swimming lessons!"
I was still a little in shock about what had just happened when I smelled something foul. My initial thought, because he was breathing heavily in my face at the time, was that my son had a case of seriously bad breath. (Boy, I've really got to work on my perception, because that was the second time in a matter of only a few minutes that I was more than a little off!) Knowing then that one of my kids had a job for me to do, I checked Zachary first and, sure enough, it was him. In a moment of enlightenment, I realized the literal meaning of the phrase, "to have the crap scared out of you." (Forgive me for being crude, but that is what I thought.) Grandma said she thought Ashley needed a change, too, so we took a break and headed with both kids toward the restroom. It turned out that Ashley really didn't need a change, so Grandma took her back to the shallow end of the main pool, and I set out on what became the worst diaper-changing experience I have ever had. And why? Because I learned exactly how absorbent those Little Swimmer swim pants really are. Or maybe I should rephrase that: I learned exactly how much water those things can hold, turning nature's innocent little call into a few gallons of smelly, polluted water, that turned into a natural disaster right there on the changing table in the ladies' room while I tried to remove the swim pants. What would have been a simple, 30-second task under most circumstances, this diaper change turned into an embarrassing 10-minute undertaking that, luckily, nobody else had to witness...but only because I used my entire body to shield my son from onlookers while trying even harder to shield myself from public humiliation. Quickly, I used up almost my entire stash of baby wipes to mop up the giant mess and tossed all evidence of it into the closest garbage can. After finally putting Zachary in a fresh pair of swim pants, we hightailed it to the sink before anyone had a chance to walk in on us. Zachary and I had some serious decontaminating to do before we went back in the water, but back in the water we did go. I probably should have advised the pool crew to call the fire department and have someone come to do hazardous waste clean-up in the bathroom, but I was too embarrassed to utter a word about it. Now that I think about it, who knows what disgusting stories that changing table would tell if changing tables could talk. I'm sure I would rather change the subject.
So, here's where the happy ending kicks in! After surviving our ordeal, Zachary didn't even act phased by any of it! Even from the moment I pulled him from the water, he reassured me, "I'm okay." Aware that I could have made the situation a whole lot scarier for him if I harped on how afraid I had been, I congratulated him on remembering his swimming skills so well and for doing a great job at kicking and paddling and for being so brave and working so hard. My speech was a moment of brilliance that came from God, because I don't know where else it would have come from at that particular moment. Zachary beamed with pride, just as he did the day he was awarded his certificate of completion after 8 whole days of swimming lessons, which, to me, have already paid off.
Showing posts with label embarrassing moments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label embarrassing moments. Show all posts
Monday, August 6, 2007
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Robin 101
Here are 101 things that I bet you didn't know about me. And if you did, then you're ready for Robin 202...and I'm not quite ready for that myself. But it really isn't too hard to come up with 101 things that people may or may not know about you, so go ahead and take the challenge! Don't try to think too hard. The more random, the better.
1. Being a mom is the one thing I always knew for sure that I wanted to be when I grew up, and I know now that raising my kids is far better than any other job I could have chosen instead.
2. I used to tell my parents (until around age 9) that I wanted to work on computers just like my dad, even though I really didn't, because I believed it made him feel special.
3. When I was about 11, I was at a church activity for mothers and daughters where we were playing a game to see how well the moms knew their girls. When it was my mom's turn to tell everyone what she thought I wanted to be when I grew up, she said that I wanted to work on computers just like my dad. Imagine her surprise when my teacher told her that I'd said I aspired to work at 7-11. I didn't really know what else to tell her, and I thought it would be fun to be around all that candy.
4. They say it is good for the heart, so that must be why I like Dove Dark Chocolate so much.
5. I don't like it when my kids are messy or sticky, so I bathe them more often than I should. Once I bathed them 3 times in one day.
6. Ice cream is my #1 best food-friend. It makes me happy, no matter what.
7. My favorite ice cream flavors are the ones with lots of stuff mixed in. I usually stay away from boring flavors like vanilla or chocolate...unless they're covered in toppings. One of my favorite flavors is Blue Bell Chocolate Brownie Overload, though strangely I don't consider myself a chocoholic. You probably don't believe me, do you?
8. I kind of think that colored sprinkles make everything more fun.
9. I like things that are bright and colorful, but I don't really have a favorite color.
10. I read while blow-drying my hair every day, and I have really thick hair which takes awhile to dry.
11. I have a strong preference for non-fiction. I just really like true stories.
12. I have never color-treated my hair, unless you count the time when I had to go to school in the 8th grade with hair the color of the Incredible Hulk. I was on the neighborhood swim team, and the pool was WAY over-chlorinated. I always thought the red highlights I had later on came from the tomato juice I had to use to wash out the green.
13. I wish I was a faster reader. I have a hard time just skimming the pages.
14. I am an excellent speller and won awards in UIL spelling competitions when I was younger.
15. I hate being up in front of people, and I hate public speaking even more.
16. I am pretty easygoing and don't mind letting others pick (restaurants, movies, etc.)
17. I love to play board games and think I'm pretty good at them.
18. I enjoy learning new things and am always trying to improve myself.
19. I secretly like to think that people wish their kids were as cute as mine.
20. I started collecting things for my future kids long before I ever got married, the weirdest of which was the set of bumper pads for a crib. I let my mom buy those for me before the wedding day. (see #29)
21. My husband and I would like to have more children, and our next daughter, should we have another girl, will have 31 letters in her name.
22. I made a deal with him that he could use that name if he let me go with what I liked for our first daughter. I shouldn't have had to do that, since he named our son.
23. I am not afraid of needles, even the huge ones, and I can totally handle the sight of blood with no problem.
24. I am somewhat afraid of heights and am somewhat claustrophobic.
25. When I was 17, my older brother and I went swimming at the lake with some friends and they were jumping off a cliff and talked me into doing it, too, even though I really didn't want to. I hit the water wrong and he had to jump in and save me. He begged me not to tell our mother (which I agreed because I am a really cool sister--I actually was injured pretty badly) but later that day I caught him laughing his head off while he told the story to her himself. That is probably part of the reason why I'm afraid of heights.
26. I'm definitely more of a visual or a hands-on learner. My mind wanders too much to listen to any kind of directions.
27. I have always had excellent health and am fortunate that I never really get sick.
28. I have a collection of old coins (anything before 1960 is considered old to me), including a silver quarter from 1936 that I got as change from a vending machine and a 1929 penny.
29. I am a huge Snoopy fan, but strangely I never cared for the Peanuts comic strip. I remember loving the TV specials and have a pretty vast collection of them on VHS.
30. I am not a movie buff and am usually the last person who knows anything about what movies are coming out.
31. I have the same birthday as Harry Potter, but I couldn't care less.
32. I don't care much at all for fantasy or science-fiction.
33. I like movies set in modern times a whole lot more than historical ones.
34. I hate hearing recordings of my voice, and it doesn't even sound like what I hear when I speak anyway.
35. I like to try new recipes but don't consider myself to be a good cook.
36. I like to look at cookbooks for fun, but I only like cookbooks with color pictures.
37. I am not a picky eater, but cold meat turns me off.
38. I like trying ethnic foods, my personal favorite probably being Thai.
39. I was born and raised in Texas, but I am not a country girl.
40. I am not good with hair or make-up.
41. I have a lead foot when it comes to driving.
42. All the traffic tickets I've gotten were between 2000-2003. There were about 7 of them during that time, including one on my birthday.
43. I enjoy going grocery shopping and don't like to stick to a list.
44. I love going to the zoo.
45. I am a total kid at heart and can't believe I am as old as I am.
46. I played the oboe in the band for 2 years and then switched the to alto saxophone, which I played for 5 years. I let my parents trade it for a used car when I went away to college.
47. I love learning about psychology and my favorite class in college was Abnormal Psych.
48. I volunteered in a mental hospital for a class assignment and thought it was so interesting that I continued doing it for a year after I finished the class.
49. I'm having a craving for a spinach & herb bagel from Einstein's...like I used to eat back in the day when I volunteered at the mental hospital. Weird...
50. I like a lot of different kinds of music, especially the 80's.
51. I love the 80's song "Take On Me" by A-Ha.
52. I had an opera song stuck in my head this morning, but I don't know the words or the name and can only hum parts of it.
53. I'd like to learn to speak Italian someday and have had the CDs to do so for years now.
54. I've never been out of the country except to Canada once.
55. I love traveling and sight-seeing, and I will do more of it when I can afford to.
56. Being able to stay at home with my children is a blessing I am extremely grateful for.
57. I am like the papparazzi when it comes to taking pictures of my kids. They don't smile for their pictures anymore, which only means I have to take even more pictures.
58. Someday I would like to decorate a room with framed jigsaw puzzles, an idea inspired by a doctor's office I once visited.
59. Ranch dressing is my favorite, and I really appreciate a good one.
60. My sister and I once spent a summer pretending we were food critics whenever we went out to restaurants, and we ate a lot of grilled chicken salads that summer.
61. I am better at remembering birthdays than most people are.
62. I once passed out in line at a Mexican restaurant. I think I was about 14 at the time.
63. I think my son looks like my side of the family and my daughter looks like her dad's side. Just about everyone tells me it's the other way around.
64. I have worn contact lenses for 17 years and don't like how I look in glasses.
65. I have always wanted to decorate a gingerbread house but never have.
66. I like to be creative, but I don't think it comes easily for me.
67. I could ruin anything with paint.
68. I love the feeling I get when I open a brand new box of Crayola crayons.
69. When I was in college, I was horsing around in an apartment and hit my arm against the door frame, breaking off the tip of my elbow. I never went to a doctor, so I've always wondered whatever happened to that missing piece. After 12 years, that elbow still feels a little more flat than the other one.
70. I sometimes wish I had more ambition, but since I strongly feel like I'm doing what I am supposed to be doing, I'm totally OK to focus on that.
71. I don't really consider myself a grumpy person in the morning.
72. I appreciate diversity and like taking my kids on new adventures, hoping that will inspire them to want to develop lots of interests...just like me. HA HA
73. I don't like having to get dressed up.
74. One of my favorite movies is Awakenings, with Robin Williams.
75. I love watching the Olympic Games and get emotional watching them sometimes.
76. I have always liked rollercoasters.
77. I love surprises but almost didn't show up to my own baby shower because it was a little TOO much of a surprise.
78. I studied Spanish for 7 years in middle school, high school and college. It was my favorite subject and I did well in it. I still remember quite a bit of it, but just don't ask me to speak it.
79. It totally bugs me if my husband goes to bed without me because I always stay up with him under normal circumstances.
80. Scrapbooking and cardmaking are 2 hobbies I wish I had more time for.
81. I'm a very sentimental person.
82. When I met my in-laws for the first time, I was in tears after having just run over and killed a dog on a freeway exit ramp. That was before I found out that they really don't like dogs anyway.
83. I dread having to go to the post office.
84. I don't really like to eat bananas, but I like most banana-flavored things.
85. My favorite soft drink is Cherry Coke.
86. I often feel guilty about things I shouldn't.
87. I enjoy developing themes for my kids' birthdays and start planning months in advance.
88. I have loved watching game shows for as long as I can remember.
89. I still have memories of my first trip to the circus, and I was 4 years old at the time.
90. I never learned how to do a cartwheel.
91. I still find checking the mail a little exciting.
92. I like city skylines when they are lit up.
93. I love the mountains and wildlife.
94. I don't like reading classical literature, especially when it is written in Old English.
95. I like to sing in the shower and think I'm pretty good at it. LOL
96. I like grilled cheese sandwiches.
97. I once foreshadowed that, despite wanting an easier last name, I would marry someone with a Polish last name, and guess what...
98. I like to be organized and always have a mental list of what I want to organize next, though most of the time it's just a nice thought I had.
99. I love Disneyworld and went there for my honeymoon.
100. I think it would be fun to work in an ice cream store, because they always smell like fresh-baked waffle cones, and people who go there are usually happy. And, hey, there's all that ice cream!
101. I ate a lot of chocolate-dipped strawberries when I was pregnant with my daughter, which might account for her sweet-and-sour personality.
1. Being a mom is the one thing I always knew for sure that I wanted to be when I grew up, and I know now that raising my kids is far better than any other job I could have chosen instead.
2. I used to tell my parents (until around age 9) that I wanted to work on computers just like my dad, even though I really didn't, because I believed it made him feel special.
3. When I was about 11, I was at a church activity for mothers and daughters where we were playing a game to see how well the moms knew their girls. When it was my mom's turn to tell everyone what she thought I wanted to be when I grew up, she said that I wanted to work on computers just like my dad. Imagine her surprise when my teacher told her that I'd said I aspired to work at 7-11. I didn't really know what else to tell her, and I thought it would be fun to be around all that candy.
4. They say it is good for the heart, so that must be why I like Dove Dark Chocolate so much.
5. I don't like it when my kids are messy or sticky, so I bathe them more often than I should. Once I bathed them 3 times in one day.
6. Ice cream is my #1 best food-friend. It makes me happy, no matter what.
7. My favorite ice cream flavors are the ones with lots of stuff mixed in. I usually stay away from boring flavors like vanilla or chocolate...unless they're covered in toppings. One of my favorite flavors is Blue Bell Chocolate Brownie Overload, though strangely I don't consider myself a chocoholic. You probably don't believe me, do you?
8. I kind of think that colored sprinkles make everything more fun.
9. I like things that are bright and colorful, but I don't really have a favorite color.
10. I read while blow-drying my hair every day, and I have really thick hair which takes awhile to dry.
11. I have a strong preference for non-fiction. I just really like true stories.
12. I have never color-treated my hair, unless you count the time when I had to go to school in the 8th grade with hair the color of the Incredible Hulk. I was on the neighborhood swim team, and the pool was WAY over-chlorinated. I always thought the red highlights I had later on came from the tomato juice I had to use to wash out the green.
13. I wish I was a faster reader. I have a hard time just skimming the pages.
14. I am an excellent speller and won awards in UIL spelling competitions when I was younger.
15. I hate being up in front of people, and I hate public speaking even more.
16. I am pretty easygoing and don't mind letting others pick (restaurants, movies, etc.)
17. I love to play board games and think I'm pretty good at them.
18. I enjoy learning new things and am always trying to improve myself.
19. I secretly like to think that people wish their kids were as cute as mine.
20. I started collecting things for my future kids long before I ever got married, the weirdest of which was the set of bumper pads for a crib. I let my mom buy those for me before the wedding day. (see #29)
21. My husband and I would like to have more children, and our next daughter, should we have another girl, will have 31 letters in her name.
22. I made a deal with him that he could use that name if he let me go with what I liked for our first daughter. I shouldn't have had to do that, since he named our son.
23. I am not afraid of needles, even the huge ones, and I can totally handle the sight of blood with no problem.
24. I am somewhat afraid of heights and am somewhat claustrophobic.
25. When I was 17, my older brother and I went swimming at the lake with some friends and they were jumping off a cliff and talked me into doing it, too, even though I really didn't want to. I hit the water wrong and he had to jump in and save me. He begged me not to tell our mother (which I agreed because I am a really cool sister--I actually was injured pretty badly) but later that day I caught him laughing his head off while he told the story to her himself. That is probably part of the reason why I'm afraid of heights.
26. I'm definitely more of a visual or a hands-on learner. My mind wanders too much to listen to any kind of directions.
27. I have always had excellent health and am fortunate that I never really get sick.
28. I have a collection of old coins (anything before 1960 is considered old to me), including a silver quarter from 1936 that I got as change from a vending machine and a 1929 penny.
29. I am a huge Snoopy fan, but strangely I never cared for the Peanuts comic strip. I remember loving the TV specials and have a pretty vast collection of them on VHS.
30. I am not a movie buff and am usually the last person who knows anything about what movies are coming out.
31. I have the same birthday as Harry Potter, but I couldn't care less.
32. I don't care much at all for fantasy or science-fiction.
33. I like movies set in modern times a whole lot more than historical ones.
34. I hate hearing recordings of my voice, and it doesn't even sound like what I hear when I speak anyway.
35. I like to try new recipes but don't consider myself to be a good cook.
36. I like to look at cookbooks for fun, but I only like cookbooks with color pictures.
37. I am not a picky eater, but cold meat turns me off.
38. I like trying ethnic foods, my personal favorite probably being Thai.
39. I was born and raised in Texas, but I am not a country girl.
40. I am not good with hair or make-up.
41. I have a lead foot when it comes to driving.
42. All the traffic tickets I've gotten were between 2000-2003. There were about 7 of them during that time, including one on my birthday.
43. I enjoy going grocery shopping and don't like to stick to a list.
44. I love going to the zoo.
45. I am a total kid at heart and can't believe I am as old as I am.
46. I played the oboe in the band for 2 years and then switched the to alto saxophone, which I played for 5 years. I let my parents trade it for a used car when I went away to college.
47. I love learning about psychology and my favorite class in college was Abnormal Psych.
48. I volunteered in a mental hospital for a class assignment and thought it was so interesting that I continued doing it for a year after I finished the class.
49. I'm having a craving for a spinach & herb bagel from Einstein's...like I used to eat back in the day when I volunteered at the mental hospital. Weird...
50. I like a lot of different kinds of music, especially the 80's.
51. I love the 80's song "Take On Me" by A-Ha.
52. I had an opera song stuck in my head this morning, but I don't know the words or the name and can only hum parts of it.
53. I'd like to learn to speak Italian someday and have had the CDs to do so for years now.
54. I've never been out of the country except to Canada once.
55. I love traveling and sight-seeing, and I will do more of it when I can afford to.
56. Being able to stay at home with my children is a blessing I am extremely grateful for.
57. I am like the papparazzi when it comes to taking pictures of my kids. They don't smile for their pictures anymore, which only means I have to take even more pictures.
58. Someday I would like to decorate a room with framed jigsaw puzzles, an idea inspired by a doctor's office I once visited.
59. Ranch dressing is my favorite, and I really appreciate a good one.
60. My sister and I once spent a summer pretending we were food critics whenever we went out to restaurants, and we ate a lot of grilled chicken salads that summer.
61. I am better at remembering birthdays than most people are.
62. I once passed out in line at a Mexican restaurant. I think I was about 14 at the time.
63. I think my son looks like my side of the family and my daughter looks like her dad's side. Just about everyone tells me it's the other way around.
64. I have worn contact lenses for 17 years and don't like how I look in glasses.
65. I have always wanted to decorate a gingerbread house but never have.
66. I like to be creative, but I don't think it comes easily for me.
67. I could ruin anything with paint.
68. I love the feeling I get when I open a brand new box of Crayola crayons.
69. When I was in college, I was horsing around in an apartment and hit my arm against the door frame, breaking off the tip of my elbow. I never went to a doctor, so I've always wondered whatever happened to that missing piece. After 12 years, that elbow still feels a little more flat than the other one.
70. I sometimes wish I had more ambition, but since I strongly feel like I'm doing what I am supposed to be doing, I'm totally OK to focus on that.
71. I don't really consider myself a grumpy person in the morning.
72. I appreciate diversity and like taking my kids on new adventures, hoping that will inspire them to want to develop lots of interests...just like me. HA HA
73. I don't like having to get dressed up.
74. One of my favorite movies is Awakenings, with Robin Williams.
75. I love watching the Olympic Games and get emotional watching them sometimes.
76. I have always liked rollercoasters.
77. I love surprises but almost didn't show up to my own baby shower because it was a little TOO much of a surprise.
78. I studied Spanish for 7 years in middle school, high school and college. It was my favorite subject and I did well in it. I still remember quite a bit of it, but just don't ask me to speak it.
79. It totally bugs me if my husband goes to bed without me because I always stay up with him under normal circumstances.
80. Scrapbooking and cardmaking are 2 hobbies I wish I had more time for.
81. I'm a very sentimental person.
82. When I met my in-laws for the first time, I was in tears after having just run over and killed a dog on a freeway exit ramp. That was before I found out that they really don't like dogs anyway.
83. I dread having to go to the post office.
84. I don't really like to eat bananas, but I like most banana-flavored things.
85. My favorite soft drink is Cherry Coke.
86. I often feel guilty about things I shouldn't.
87. I enjoy developing themes for my kids' birthdays and start planning months in advance.
88. I have loved watching game shows for as long as I can remember.
89. I still have memories of my first trip to the circus, and I was 4 years old at the time.
90. I never learned how to do a cartwheel.
91. I still find checking the mail a little exciting.
92. I like city skylines when they are lit up.
93. I love the mountains and wildlife.
94. I don't like reading classical literature, especially when it is written in Old English.
95. I like to sing in the shower and think I'm pretty good at it. LOL
96. I like grilled cheese sandwiches.
97. I once foreshadowed that, despite wanting an easier last name, I would marry someone with a Polish last name, and guess what...
98. I like to be organized and always have a mental list of what I want to organize next, though most of the time it's just a nice thought I had.
99. I love Disneyworld and went there for my honeymoon.
100. I think it would be fun to work in an ice cream store, because they always smell like fresh-baked waffle cones, and people who go there are usually happy. And, hey, there's all that ice cream!
101. I ate a lot of chocolate-dipped strawberries when I was pregnant with my daughter, which might account for her sweet-and-sour personality.
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