failing, mommy style - Ari's Black Eye

I had to send John the following text message this afternoon:
                "I accidentally gave Ari a black eye" 
It's true.  I gave my ten and a half month old a black eye. Obviously not on purpose, I don't go around purposely punching my baby, but man it certainly was a big Mommy Fail moment...

We had another showing this afternoon, thankfully John did not have to be in the field today so he was home with me to assist in the pre-showing mad dash around the house.  We worked out the logistics of who was going where with what - John ended up taking his car and running some errands, I took our SUV loaded with the pack & play (we try to de-clutter the living room when we leave), the baby & the dogs to go hang out in the mall parking lot while the house was being shown.  I realize I probably look like a crazy person sitting in the parking lot, crocheting, with two dogs and a baby in the back, but it is what it is.  I digress, anyway when I came home John was still out running around, so I unpacked the SUV and brought everything/everyone back in the house.  On a normal day, one of us puts together the pack & play while the other entertains Ari.  Since I was flying solo and I didn't have a second set of hands, I figured it would be easier to put the kid in his "pod" on the couch and put the play pen together.  For whatever reason this seemed like a better idea than putting him in his crib upstairs, honestly because I didn't feel like going back and forth.  I plopped him in his pod and started putting the play pen back together.  I was 99.9% done, all I was doing was putting the sheet on the little mattress and when it happened.  Ari leaned too far forward in the pod to try to reach for something on the coffee table and he started to go over head first off the couch.  I reacted and tried to grab him and in doing so my right thumb went right into his face.  He was startled, but I think I cried more than he did.  I felt, and still do feel, horrible!  Thankfully it hit him where it did because a little higher and my nail would have gone into his eye.

Thanks mom.

All said and done, it probably won't be a full on black eye but you can already see the slight bruise and cut from where my nail hit him under the eye.  Poor guy!  John is doing his best to make me feel better, reminding me that part of growing up and exploring will sometimes lead to bumps and bruises.  FACT: Ari will get hurt and there will be nothing I can do about it.  John also told me that 50% of parents drop their kid in the first three months, so if we've come this far and this is the only injury we're not doing too bad!  He might have made that statistic up, but I really don't care, it did make me smile!  I know the entire experience upset me more than it upset Ari - in fact as I was holding him, crying and repeating "mommy is so sorry" over and over again, he started playing with my nose and laughing.  I think the kid is ok and I'll manage, that is until my next mommy mistake.