The Evil Coffee Table

I was sorta hoping to avoid a parenting fail that resulted in Henry knocking his head into the coffee table all together. I mean, no new mom WANTS their baby to run their precious little noggin into anything hard and pointy. But, knowing myself and my lack of attention to detail, I figured I could never make it past the walking phase. Still, I must admit that even I was surprised to find that my level of unawareness (it's a word) is so high that I actually let my child knock his head into the table...before he is even crawling. *shakes head in shame* Let me explain.

So, Henry has entered a rather needy phase. Not terrible, he just has a rather short attention span for things and if he was given his rathers he would like to be held at all times. Even when sleeping. Now, obviously we cannot comply with his wishes (although I am pretty sure his grandparents choose to never let that sweet butt touch the ground) so we are finding new ways to keep him entertained without actually doing nothing but holding him all day. One way it to multitask. For instance, right now Henry is sitting in my lap while I type. We are both pretty happy about it.

Still, there are times that I must put him down. His office works sometimes, but he is a little tired of it. This had led to new inventive ways to allow him to self entertain in a safe environment. One of these environments is on the floor. He is sitting up really well now, so I feel comfortable enough sticking the boppy behind him for support and loading the dishwasher or changing the laundry. This was my plan last week, and I thought it was going really well. I set him down on his butt, looked all around him and decided there was no danger, surrounded him with toys he could entertain himself with, and and went to work on chores.

Let me tell you, the coffee table was not close. NOT CLOSE. I mean, our house is pretty small, so you can't really get away from the coffee table in the living room, but it was a good two feet away. I really looked at him. He couldn't fall back, there was the boppy! He couldn't fall forward, he will catch himself, plus there is only feet and floor there. SAFE! Wrong. I am in the laundry room and I hear this...this *THUMP*. Then I hear. "Ah.... AHHHHH.... YAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" I think, "Oh no...he hit his head on the floor" Then I go in the room. Oh lord you all. His head. His head was stuck under the coffee table. Did you hear me? His head was STUCK UNDER THE COFFEE TABLE. And he was trying with all his little might to get it out, but he was pushing UP while pulling back, making the entire thing worse. He wasn't even crying. HE was really like, "WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH MY FLIPPING HEAD??"

So....so...my heart sorta burst because "MY BABEEE IS STUCK!!" and then I ran over, pushed his head down, and then pulled him free. Then I saw the mark. It wasn't pretty. Large red bump where the initial fall occurred, then another inch of redness where he managed to wedge himself in there good and tight. And all of this happened because it never occurred to me that, even though he cannot crawl, this child sure as hell can LUNGE for things. Like blocks. That I put out of his reach. Out of his reach and REALLY near the evil child eating coffee table. Giant fail for Mama. Poor baby.