Monday, April 20, 2009

Oh What A Night!

I only wish I were posting about the song -- and yes, I have it going through my head right now, so you can share in my misery.

Last night, we were invited to a friend's house for dinner. They live in our neighborhood, and ordinarily we'd walk, but it was raining, so we needed to drive. And about forty-five minutes before we were supposed to be there, I realized that I didn't have anything I was bringing. Oops.

So I made Nana's Apple Cake because a) it's dairy free -- her son also has a lactose issue, so it's appreciated b) it's yummy and c) it has three ingredients so I can get it cooking quickly. Yeah.... At 4:52 I finally called her and asked if I could borrow her oven to finish cooking it. We were supposed to be there at 4:30.

Her kids are both boys, and very (stereo)typical boys, at that. Little Miss was super excited to see them, and she ran into the house and started playing. Eventually, they migrated into the basement where the bouncy house was turned on. That required adult supervision, as four children in a two person bouncy gets a little dicey. Especially with some kids who like to turn it on and off. And some kids who like to try to make the walls fall down.

My friend and I left our husbands downstairs to monitor the situation while we chatted and got dinner finalized.

Fun Event A: Mister Man came upstairs holding his arm and crying. And no, I don't know why my husband didn't handle it while downstairs, so don't ask.... He'd fallen on his previously broken arm, at which point we all decided maybe the bouncy house wasn't the best thing to play with right now. Tears gone, we started dinner.

Fun Event B: My friend made great chicken fajitas. She crock potted the chicken in salsa. Neither child would eat the fajitas, although both tried them, to their credit. Neither child would eat the spanish rice my friend made either. She very kindly made them chicken nuggets. And I only twice had to shush Mister Man from going on about how yucky the food was.

Fun Event C: After dinner and before dessert, the kids were all playing upstairs. We had each gone upstairs to check on them a few times when her older son suddenly burst into loud howls. Yep, Mister Man stabbed him in the eye with a Lego toy. We're still not sure of the whole story as Mister Man didn't get much of a chance to explain himself beyond the typical "but it was an accident" story. And her son never game many details either. Mister Man was too wound up from the long weekend and was sent on his merry way home with my husband to go to bed.

Fun Event D: After dessert -- ok in the middle of dessert after my friend's younger son decided he was done eating watermelon and Little Miss quickly followed suit -- the two went upstairs into his room. I checked, and he had turned on a Baby Einstein video. Whatever. I went back downstairs until a couple minutes later when we felt and heard the thud. And then the screaming. I was closest and made it up the stairs first, and my friend's husband was close behind. I opened the door to the room and saw the dresser tipped over with her son underneath. I pushed the dresser back onto the wall, by which point the dad was scooping up the boy to check him out. The television that was atop the dresser had crash landed on the bed, missing Little Miss by about three inches. Her son appears to be fine, although many of the objects that were atop the dresser previously had broken in the fall. The dresser didn't land all the way on her son, as the foot of the bed stopped it. Apparently, he had tried to climb the dresser to reach the VCR to change the movie, and it had tipped. He fell back against the footboard of the bed and probably has a pretty bruised back. The drawers also fell out and landed on his legs, but thank GOD the dresser was stopped by the bed.

We left after that.

I asked her to let me know how both her boys are doing today, but I've gotten a few good reminders and lessons here.

1) Tonight when I get home from work, I am anchoring Little Miss's dresser to the wall. Mister Man only has a very low bureau that he could never topple. But I'm still considering anchoring that, as well.

2) Dinners need to be earlier. We'd been invited for 4:30 with dinner around 5:15 or 5:30. That's too late for an evening out for us. We need to be eating between 4:30 and 5 because social dinners take so long to eat. And the dinner never starts on time anyway -- my friend had forgotten to make rice, so we didn't start our meal until almost six.

3) These kids need to be supervised when playing. While the wee ones can play with some kids with only check ins every five minutes or so, with these friends, there needs to be an adult present at all times.

4) My husand needs to stop showing the wee ones Spiderman. Spiderman cartoons from the 1970s has turned into his little ritual with them, and I've been against this for a number of reasons: it pushes bedtime too late, they get into a very demanding mode where they expect Spiderman, I don't like them watching much tv anyway, and although this is a very sanitized version there still is cartoon violence. In talking to Mister Man after I got home (who was absolutely filled with shame and crushed and could hardly talk, poor kid) I determined that he wasn't trying to hurt anyone but that Spiderman shoots things out and throws things and the bad guys just get captured and don't get hurt. He can't draw the line between what's ok and not, and with his issues in knowing where to draw the line already in some of his social issues, Spiderman is just too much for him. Spiderman didn't necessarily cause the Lego stabbing, but it certainly didn't help the matter. My husband, fortunately, had already thought of the same thing, so we're on the same page.

My biggest concern is that Mister Man is in daycare all morning with the boy he "stabbed" (it was a Lego square ship like thing, so stabbing is a little severe of a description). The boy even when we left was playing the drama up to the hilt -- not saying that he isn't hurt but his mom said he was milking it. Mister Man has two boys in daycare who already get on his case about everything where we've been working with the teachers to ensure the behavior is appropriate. If my friend's son starts talking about what Mister Man did in daycare, we could have a problem. We'll see when I get home.

And meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out when the right time is to call my friend to apologize again for Mister Man and to see how both her kids are doing. But I'm not expecting a dinner invite anytime soon.

14 comments:

Cookie April 20, 2009 at 3:40 PM  

OMG! That is scarey. I'm glad everyone is ok.
You are so right about kids do need to be supervised.

septembermom April 20, 2009 at 3:45 PM  

So many times, I've seen things get out of hand when I'm at a friend's house with the kids. Boys, especially, get involved in such physical play. It seems to be just minutes before someone gets hurt in the mix of it all. My boys used to think that they were all the Jedi warriors from Star Wars. Sometimes they would get too exuberant and almost hurt each other one too many times. I'm sorry that you had such a crazy visit. I'm sure the other mom knows that things can get crazy when kids get together. I agree about fastening the dresser to the wall. I've had climbers come to my house and I'm always afraid that someone is going to get crushed. Scary!

MaBunny April 20, 2009 at 4:01 PM  

glad everyone is all right! Sounds like a very eventful evening that you could have done without! and the chicken fajitas sound good!

Laura April 20, 2009 at 6:31 PM  

Lego stabbing hahaha that's funny. Just the way you are saying it not the actual stabbing. *snort* Yep they are boys all right. Even w/o tv violence kids are wild. There were 2 things that totally freaked me out/concerned me
1) my kids refusing to eat means they don't eat, they quickly learn that what is for dinner is what's for dinner-3 bites are always required no matter what usually after 3 bites they forget why they didn't like it(looks or smell or preconceived notion)
2)kids w/ tvs in their rooms? what? why? I don't get that...I realize I am alone in this as most of the people I know have tvs in their kids rooms
I'm sorry you had a crap night it is always a roll of the dice when we go to dinner somewhere cheer up pretty soon they'll be teens... :)

Aunt Julie April 20, 2009 at 8:10 PM  

Ya know, my Hubz is one of those "pass the buck" guys sometimes, too. Scary stuff with the dresser and all. Glad everyone came out of that evening relatively unscathed. Next time if the kids won't eat the fajitas, I have a suggestion. a) try some POPrs, or b) send those dang fajitas over to moi, please?

Angie's Spot April 20, 2009 at 8:46 PM  

Oh wow. I've had some questionable dinner affairs in the past, but this one was a doozy. So glad that the dresser didn't completely fall on that kid. I harped on my hubby as soon as my eldest was born to anchor EVERYTHING to the walls. A friend of a friend lost her 6yr old daughter when an armoire fell on her a few years ago. Truly frightening. I'm sure your friend will get over the drama sooner than later and have you guys back over.

Kelly Deneen Raymond April 20, 2009 at 9:49 PM  

Oh no! What a rough dinner/play date! I am sure her kiddos are fine, and she totally understands. I'm glad your kids are okay!

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet April 21, 2009 at 7:48 AM  

Ugh! Sorry to hear about the lego stabbing. :(

Michelle April 21, 2009 at 11:08 AM  

Cookie - Yeah... a little scary. And the supervision? Can't leave dads to it!

septembermom - I've been lucky that both the wee ones know NOT to climb, but it only takes one time.... And we now have wall anchors up!

MaBunny - Yeah, I could have used less of the excitement. The fajitas were good!

Laura - Oh, yeah... hilarious! :) I'm with you on the trying things. Both the wee ones did eat several bites of the fajitas and the rice, but they were too spicy. We follow the you must chew and swallow at least one full bite of something. And the tvs? I'm sooooo with you. We don't watch tv to begin with -- except for the now defunct Spiderman on my husband's computer -- and there are NO tvs going in the rooms ever at our house.

Veggie Mom - Unfortunately, we weren't at my house, so no Pop'rs, but a good idea!

Angie - Yikes! I would have thought that by six they were more ok, but it just goes to show you can't let your guard down! Scary!

Kelly - You're right, and she apologized for her kid, and we're still welcome there. And yes, her kids are both fine, thankfully!

Sherry - Yeah... it was pretty special. Here's hoping we don't go down that path again!

Laura April 21, 2009 at 11:22 AM  

Smooches Michelle! Glad they were just too spicy and your kids ate them :)

anymommy April 21, 2009 at 11:22 PM  

Whew. What a night is right. Glad every one is okay. This stuff happens (well the dresser was really scary, I'm checking my kids' rooms too). I am so with you on social dinners with kids needing to be early. Amen.

Michelle April 22, 2009 at 10:58 PM  

anymommy - The dresser was VERY scary. And now I just found out that a grandson of a teacher at my husband's school fell out a third story window onto concrete with mom six feet away and is ... questionable. Yikes! And we were trying early... we left at 6:30. And we were supposed to be there at 4:30. Next time, I'm aiming for 4!

Angela April 25, 2009 at 9:44 AM  

Oh NO. I am so sorry!! That was a very scary evening, and I am so thankful no one was seriously hurt. The furniture thing is super scary - I would not have thought to anchor anything to the walls (as I know for a fact my parents never did). I am trying to remember - don't think I ever had furniture that could really topple, though. But yep, they can get into trouble lightning fast, even with tons of parents literally standing right there.

So glad it ended okay, anyway.

Michelle April 25, 2009 at 7:49 PM  

Angela - I know! One of the grandchildren of a teacher my husband works with went through the screen of a window and down three stories the next day... with his mom standing six feet from him, watching him sit on a bit chair. Yikes!

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