Bumps in the road

The weather was beautiful this weekend.  We got out of the house early to meet some friends at the park for a play date and photo shoot.  We wanted to get some shots of Chase in his red wagon for his birthday invitation so we all met down at Algonquian Park on the Potomac which made for the perfect backdrop!

Here are a couple out-takes of the invitation in the making...

Most babies don't like grass.  Chase?  Loves it.  And bark.  It's all so tasty.

How about all the boys in the wagon for a fun picture.  Easy, right?  Alex could care less and was just lounging.  Kameron was suspicious of crazy Chase.  And Chase was, well, craaaaazy.  Here he is trying to escape!  More on that later.

We played and chatted and enjoyed the weather.  It is so fun to have all three boys so close in age.  There will be lots of play dates to come.  Kevin headed off for golf with the boys as we continued to play.  We decided to try to get a few more pictures of Chase in his wagon to make sure we had a variety to choose from for his invitation.  That's when it happened...

I was standing off to the side out of camera view when Chase popped up and flipped over the top in a split second.  I now know what parents mean when they say "I was watching him like a hawk and it all happened in a split second."   As soon as I saw his little hips and knees start to move, I was already in forward motion to sit him back down (he had been doing this all morning).  He was over the top before I could stop him. The image is still stuck in my head.  He fell directly on his face and then his tiny body did a back bend over his face (still lying on the ground) so his neck was stretched and folded back in half.  I couldn't get to him fast enough.  For a split second I thought he might have broken his neck.  He cried hysterically for less than a minute (I might have cried longer).  I quickly called the doctor who didn't seemed alarmed, but said to get him checked out to be safe.  He was totally calm and playing with his toys by the time I threw him in the car and called Kevin to meet me.  He jabbered and played the whole way to the ER as I analyzed his movements in rear view mirror (caring less about the fact that I was driving down the highway!).

We were in an out of the ER in 45 minutes which shows that he was just fine, but the doctors said we did the right thing.  Daddy arrived right as the doctor was examining him.  He babbled away at the doctor and grabbed at her instruments-- obviously fine.  As the doctor agreed, Mommy was much more traumatized than Chase ever was!

We took a LONG nap when we got home and then met up with Kerri and Kristin and the Brew fest.  Chase played on a nice soft blanket (safely on the ground) and I had a drink to calm my nerves!