First big accident. . .

A week and a half ago we had an incident. The short version is our little MonkeyBear fell out of the cart at Target. The long version? . . .

Target trips are normally fun for our whole family. We get to walk around and look at stuff, we're not big impulse shoppers so we just browse and pick up the usual stuff (fabric softener, deodorant, birthday cards), and the little guy gets to see the demoed talking and walking dinosaur and some other toys. Often he'll want to walk with me and push the cart, once he gets bored with pushing he'll ask to get into the cart.

Normally we just put him in the regular seat like we should, but the past couple trips I had decided to try him in the main cart part. He's getting a little too big for the seat and well I don't know why else. . . I guess because I see other kids in the basket and they look so much happier and I thought "why not."

So on our weekly Target trip two weeks ago I went ahead and let him ride in the main part. He had stuck his arms out a few times to touch things and while we were stopped he stood a couple times, but he seemed to get the concept that I wouldn't move the cart unless he was sitting. We offered to move him to the seat and he fought. He won the battle, we were tired and gave in when we shouldn't have.

Part way through our trip, he stood up, I stopped the cart, he had leaned over the front, and my stopping (to make him sit down) flung him out of the cart. He literally flipped end over end, bumped his head on the cart on the way down, and hit the floor.

I ran and picked him up (as I did I thought I should have checked for neck issues first). He started to cry. My wife ran over too. I didn't see his head. She did. When I did look, above his eye the skin was dented in and blue. I thought for a moment he had crushed his skull. A woman looked around the corner and said she heard everything. She told us to go get ice and snapped us out of our shock.

We went up to the Target snack bar and got ice (in a rubber glove) and started to ice his head. The dent was just on the skin and a few moments after we applied the ice it started to look normal again. We asked him some questions and figured he didn't have a concussion. . . I have to pause for a moment to mention one question we asked. We asked him how old he was and the Target employees who were sitting with us we confused when we were relieved that he answered by saying his name. Until yesterday that was the only way he would answer how old he was.

So we took him home (all the way home he kept saying "I scare mommy daddy"). Once home I called the nurse hotline and, based on our description, we agreed that he seemed fine.

The next day he looked and acted just fine. We needed to finish our half trip to Target. When asked if he wanted to go back to Target he said "no," but once there he was singing his Target song. . . what, your kid doesn't sign a song for Target? His eye bruised a few days later and only looks completely normal now (10 days later).

He doesn't seem to have learned his lesson (he wanted to ride in the main part of the cart on the return trip), but we did. No more riding in the basket of the cart.