Thursday, February 15, 2007

Worst mommy of the Year Award

So- VD recap. The eclairs were an utter disaster. The recipe for the filling was no good either. I never managed to get it thick enough so I ended up freezing it and scooping it up like ice cream just before serving. The Champagne shrimp was great, but it used up so much champagne that I ended up sending B back to the shop when he got home so that we could have a glass or two ourselves. Also, I would probably serve it with a small herb salad next time because for all that work, there wasn't very much food on the plate. The main was fine but nothing spectacular. Of course, as predicted, we were in the kitchen at 11:30 loading the dishwasher in our robes. I hadn't had a chance all afternoon to straighten things up. Everytime I had a break, the phone would ring and I ended up probably spending 2 hours chatting, when I probably would have been better occupied washing dishes. And finally, B did not seem to notice at all that I hadn't made it to my waxing appointment. I think I have Sonia Rykiel to thank. He really loved the lingerie, although it is a bit frustrating to spend a fortune on something gorgeous like that and only end up wearing it about half an hour. All in all, a success. There was champagne, bouquets of flowers, a candlelit dinner, funny poems in cards, and an early bedtime :-)

Poor little Ella was being a sweetheart and played nicely in her room all evening while I was rushing around getting things organized so when I took her into her room to get her pyjamas on, I was playing with her, carrying her upside to make her giggle. As I swung her over to grab with my other arm so that I could put her upright and on to the changing table, she twisted and slipped out of my arm and landed on the floor right on her head. I just about died when I heard the "thunk" her head made on the carpet (there is no padding and its cement underneath). She must have sobbed for about 10 minutes and every time I asked her where it hurt, she would howl even louder. I was a bit worried that she had hurt her neck as well. After she calmed down, I had a look and there is an enormous goose egg right along her hairline in the middle of her forehead. Who is the worst mommy?

I don't mind admitting my little bumble. The other day I stumbled across this blog entry and started reading the comments. I guess everybody has atleast one of these bad days when you feel like nominating yourself for the Worst Mommy of the Year award. And when I started thinking about my own childhood, I can think of one or two moments when my own mother must have worried whether she was up to the job- and yet all five of her children survived to adulthood. I don't want to spill all her deep dark secrets out on the internet, but I do remember driving away in our van more than once and noticing one of the seats empty. Of course, us kids would never mention it until we got home because I suppose we were hoping to thin the pack a little bit? Gosh, I'm sort of warming up to this topic. How about tomorrow I recap some of my favorite childhood disaster stories? With a family of 5 kids, plus the summers when we added another 4/5 cousins to the mix, I have enough stories to keep me blogging for days. And coincidently, removing any residual guilt I might have over dropping Ella on her head.

5 comments:

Devra said...

My son landed on his head once too. I was trying to do two things and once and the next thing I realized he had toppled over and out of the car. Thankfully it helped me to think about accidents being called accidents and not "On Purposes"! We all do our best to keep our kids safe, but we can't prevent everything that might hurt them, despite our best intentions.

The Late Bloomer said...

I knew he wouldn't even notice! Sounds like you had a wonderful evening, even if you had to fill the dishwasher -- at least you have one!

I would kill for some Sonia Rykiel lingerie, BTW. OK, maybe not kill, but you know what I mean...

Oh, and I'm pretty certain most mommies have had those kinds of experiences -- I'm not a mom (yet?) myself, but I babysat for a mom who told me the same thing happened to her, so I totally understand. She felt terrible too, but her little girl was fine.

Nicole said...

One of my boys fell out of a grocery cart and landed on the top of his head before flipping over and landing on his back. It was horrible. After the dr said he was fine but do wake him up every 2 hours during the night to make sure (very reassuring), I took him to an osteopath who spent an hour putting things back into place. Very scary.

Another Nicole

PutYourFlareOn said...

Let's swap stories about growing up in a family of 5 kids, we have some hilarious ones, too.

sallywrites said...

Our son once fell out of the car backwards when my husband opended the door to let him out. He had taken off his seat belt and was leaning against the door............

And with five children myself, I too have many disasterous days. I tend to blank the bad bits out a bit though, because you'd go mad if you thought about them all the time. You just do your best!

Nice Valentines day for you!!