I’m not sure how much I can write about the episode that ends with my two-year-old son breaking his tiny, precious little two-year-old leg. If I tell the truth, it’ll show that I’m somewhat mad at my husband for judgment oversight. If I ignore the details, I can tell a tale of how parents can avoid this happening to your child.

HMMM.

Truth hurts.

We are having a quite lovely day at the local theme park, grandparents in tow. My son is having a blast, although a bit tired from skipping his daily nap. It’s afternoon, and we’ve successfully navigated most of the park. The only place left to visit is the playground. We walk by and don’t stop. My motherly instincts says it looks a bit too much for a toddler. Then, I rethink it and decide it’s OK because I see several small slides and things to climb on for kids his age.

We go in and have a blast on slide number one. Mommy takes him, then PopPop takes a turn, then Daddy takes him on the slide. Then, Daddy says, “let’s try something else.”

I think to myself, “I’m going to sit this one out and read up on where we can go for dinner.” I sit on a rock, take my book out and proceed to “take five.”

When I get up I see my husband and son climbing up a steep rope netting to a tall, tall slide. I call up to my husband, but he doesn’t hear me. It’s too late for my opinion. They go down the slide together. When they come up, my son is crying. This is when we leave.

My son falls asleep on the ride home and we decide to take him to the night-time pediatric clinic (if you don’t know about these places, learn about them! They are amazing and let you avoid the ER). After an hour and a few X-rays, we learn that something is wrong and the doctor orders his leg splinted. It’s not until Monday morning that we learn it’s an official “crack” that requires a full-leg cast for four weeks.

My husband feels terrible about the situation and I’ve gotten over being mad. Thank goodness our son is in great spirits about all of it. It’s just one of the many things we, as parents, have to deal with through a lifetime.

It’s been almost three weeks since “the incident,” and I’m fine with it now. We’ve all gotten over feeling like rotten parents and realize that little legs twist, bones break and there’s nothing we can really do about it.

Lesson for parents: When in doubt, sit it out. When I originally wrote this post my recommendation was to be more cautious, but the reality of the situation is that we never know what’s going to happen and it’s what we do after “it” happens that counts.

Normally we hear the sad stories about a child drowning when we are reminded of the need for all parents to learn CPR. Typically it’s a tragic story, one that you can’t bear to watch so you change the channel on the TV or turn the page in the newspaper. We ignore things that are hard to watch.

My mom told me about a positive story and it just warms my heart. A two-year-old boy was SAVED by his sister and his mother, who performed CPR. Without the CPR her child wouldn’t have been revived.

The full story can be read here.

Related:

• Find where to get certified in your area — it doesn’t take long and isn’t expensive.
• Read my account of taking CPR.
• Read my post about infant swim lessons.

Answer: When he has to go to the ER and comes home with a cast on his leg!

I finally got certified in Infant and Child CPR and First Aid this past weekend. It’s two years overdue, but better late than never. Why I waited I’ll never know, but thanks to my friend Andrea, I finally went. She and I have children the same age and kept on each other to finally get certified. If we hadn’t talked about it, I’m not sure I would have ever made it to the class. Having a friend to go with makes it easier too.

We learned complete CPR, including the differences between adult, child and infant cases. We also learned about burns, poisonings, fractures and other ailments so that we are prepared for calamities that we surely will be faced with as our children age. I feel better knowing how to deal with serious issues now.

As I’m sitting in class I’m wondering why more people don’t get certified. with all of the disasters we have in this country, we need people to be trained properly to assist in emergency situations. Not just rely on the Red Cross to fix things. How many more people could we save if more civilians like you and me were certified?

Find a location near you.

Several months ago I wrote about how my toddler son suddenly had a hard time (that’s putting it nicely) sleeping in his crib. He had been the poster child of the perfect sleeper: never woke up in the middle of the night, never cried when we put him to bed, always went to bed with ease. Until we went away for a long weekend.

We remedied the problem through a series of experiments over 23 days, one of which I’ll tell you about today: It’s called the crib tent. While this is not a product blog, I feel I must write about this thing that brought order (and sleep!) back into my life.

I know a few moms who have resorted to the tent, so that made the transition easier for me. It’s not easy to put your toddler in his crib and zip him in. I felt like a bad mom; our bedtime routine has become: brush teeth, read book, hugs and kisses, put in crib, say “Nite, nite,” then ZIIIIIP! and lights off.

The first night I felt pretty bad zipping that tent up, but he didn’t seem to mind. It got easier after time, especially the peace of mind it gives me knowing that he’s not going to climb out of his crib in the middle of the night and start playing with something dangerous. It’s been a little over two months now and we still use it — otherwise he’d be climbing out every night. I think that we’ll transition to a toddler bed sooner than I have planned, but for now, the tent is working.

Related links:

• How to get your child to sleep resources
• Crib tent details