Today my daughter scared the crap out of me.
Jaime, Ben and I all went up to Danielle and Chris's to hang out and check out them all moved into their new house.
It was so awesome just hanging out and letting the kids play. I'm so, so happy they are back in Juneau. It was an awesome day and I freakin' LOVE their house. I love their plans for the house, I love the lot the house sits on, it's just all around awesome. Well Ben, Jaime and Joey were all playing and at one point we find Jaime….in the dryer…with the door closed. I freaked out on her and explained how she should never, ever hide in an appliance or the trunk of a car. That really freaked me out, as I would've thought my daughter would know better. Why do I think this? Why should my 6 year old daughter know better? Especially since I have never told her not to do that. So I say a little prayer, thank you god nothing bad happened to her and I got the chance to teach her not to do that. Not everyone is that lucky and I honestly don't take those near misses or could've-been-so-bad's lightly. I really don't. I live worst case scenario and I am always on the look out for the potential dangers. Especially when we are in a house we have never been in before. I usually am very alert and right on top of things. So I was honestly grateful that nothing happened to her and that really scared me.
But that's not what scared the crap out of me. That mildly scared me. What scared the crap out of me was the sight of my daughter's face on the cement driveway, having fallen from Chris and Danielle's boat while trying to climb out of it. The kids were playing around in the boat and us adults were standing around talking to a neighbor that had come over to introduce himself. It happened so fast. Chris was the first to say something and I turned and saw Jaime face first on the cement. You heard a collective gasp of breath…and I think all of our heart's stopped at once. Danielle and Chris saw it happen, Zak missed what happened and I saw the very last instant of it. She got right up and started running and I got to her first and scooped her up in my arms. I put my hand to the back of her head and held her head against my chest, partly because I was terrified to look at her and partly to keep her head stable. I was so, so scared and everyone else had gotten to us at that point and Zak says "Give her to me." And he had a tone to his voice that scared me even more. I hand her over and I catch a glimpse of her face and all I see is blood and I panic. I felt like I couldn't breath, I was shaking from head to toe and crying. I go into the house and everyone was so wonderful and reassuring me she was okay. I take a look at her and she is crying and they have ice on her head and they are checking her pupils and asking her her age and telling me she's being very alert and responsive and that's a good sign.
"She's alert and responsive…" Those are words you never want to hear in your lifetime when someone is talking about your kid. It just unnerved me. The seriousness of the situation made me cry harder. I calmed myself down and really looked at her and I realize she's okay..she's really okay. She managed to get her hands out in front on her and that took the force of the fall. Her face and head were really no worse than if she had fallen from standing up onto the cement. It's just superficial wounds, basically just bad scrapes. After tending to her for about 20 minutes, she goes back outside. And promptly climbs back up into the boat.
She's so tough. I'm so proud of her.
I'm so thankful it turned out to be such a minor thing. It really could've been so much worse. It turned out she slipped when she was trying to get out.
Danielle and Chris were so apologetic and I kept apologizing. It's one of those things….a true, genuine accident and it's so no one's fault. I told them "For the record, if anything happens to one of my kids here, I will never sue you." Zak joked and said "She's speaking for herself…" lol. I'm sure they already knew that, but I just wanted to reassure them, it's a genuine accident and if anything it's our fault for letting her climb around the boat. Their kid has been on a boat a million times, ours haven't. Zak and I could've been watching her a little more closely, but really things happen..it's life. There is no reason why we shouldn't assume our 6 year old daughter, who's top bunk of her bed is higher than that boat, could get herself in and out of that boat just fine. It's just one of those things and we should all just be thankful it was so minor…it could've been so much worse. We took some pics of her battle scars….I think she's a little impressed at how bad they look..lol.
All in all, except for the near heart attack…it was a wonderful day and I am so, so happy Chris and Danielle are in their new house! We are so going to spend some serious time up there the rest of the summer. Congrats to them!!
Anything But Gray 
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