Saturday, January 29, 2011

Canopy Collision

Attention all fathers. For those of you who love to hoist your little ones up onto your shoulders for a little stroll down the sidewalk, beware...

While out running errands today with Ada and Cousin Anna and Iain, we got to a point where neither of the girls wanted to walk, and Iain didn't have walking as an option. Our stroller only holds two kids, and it has a weight limit--which we surely exceeded since our kids are big for their ages. At one point, Iain was asleep in the back of the stroller, Anna was sitting in the front and Ada was sitting on Anna's lap. I thought the stroller was going to break an axle. It didn't take long for Anna's legs to go numb so we had to move on to Plan C. (Plan A was for Anna to walk while Ada and Iain rode in the stroller since Anna is older and used to walking. That was quickly foiled once we realized Anna's shoes were too small and her feet hurt.)

Plan C was for Anna and Iain to ride in the stroller and for Ada to ride on Rick's shoulders for a bit. Normally, that would have been a fine plan. Unfortunately for Ada, Rick decided this was the new plan while he was standing under a solid canopy in front of our local grocery store. As I was helping Anna get settled into the stroller, he absentmindedly hoisted Ada up onto his shoulders, thereby sending the top of her head crashing into the canopy with a loud thunk. Realizing what had just happened, and being the rotten parents that we are, Rick and I both started laughing hysterically at the idiocy of it all. We were trying not to laugh (but failing), checking to make sure Ada was alright (which she was minus the initial pain, shock and tears), and continuing on our way toward the museum to avoid drawing too much attention to ourselves on the busy street, all at the same time. Good times.
Then I got to laughing again when I noticed Rick had pink thumb "ears" on his head. Kids. You just never know what will happen next.

Moral of the story: Always look up before hoisting a child onto your shoulders, and watch for low hanging things as you go.

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