Where’s That Chain Letter I Threw Away Again?

Sorry for my cyber-absence. It’s been a long week.

Last Monday, Caelyn stuck a hair clip in her mouth and choked on it until she finally (miraculously) got it down. I’ve always felt that putting anything in her hair was risky, but she rarely takes those clips out. And two weeks ago I bought bigger ones with the specific intention of reducing the choking risk.

Needless to say, she did take one out and I didn’t reduce the risk enough.

After the orange incident THE FREAKIN’ WEEK BEFORE, I brushed up on my “What to do when my toddler chokes” knowledge, so I knew the moves. Doing them, though, was more complicated than I expected, because she resisted me with all her strength. But I did my best, which was enough to help her breathe off and on before downing the thing. And, fortunately, Chris was there and came out when I banged on the wall.

Even with it swallowed, we had to go to the ER to make sure it was in a “good” place, which meant Caelyn couldn’t have anything to eat/drink (she missed snack and dinner) in case we needed to do a procedure, and we were in for a long evening of waiting, hunger, stranger anxiety, exhaustion, and outright terror.

In the end, we were only there for 3 1/2 hours, and although Caelyn thought they were ripping her heart out of her chest when they took x-rays, everything turned out fine. The clip had cleared the chest cavity and all we had to do was wait for it to come out — which it did 2 days later.

I’d thought about kids swallowing things before, but never about the possible consequences besides choking or poisoning. The triage nurse told us not to let her throw up, because she could just as easily choke (and die) when it came back up. So if it had gotten stuck somewhere in the middle they would’ve had to surgically go in and remove it.

Thankfully, that’s not how it went for us. We all came home healthy and even a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see the x-rays.

Then on Thursday Caelyn and I got an early start on errands. We picked up sparkly stickers for party favors at Michael’s, then headed south for lunch and Hobby Lobby, but our trip was cut short in front of Wal-Mart, where a lady pulled out in front of me and the only thing to do was hit her.

I’ve never been in a wreck (or a “fender bender”) as a driver or a passenger. I’ve never even gotten a traffic ticket, so all the excitement was “novel” to me. Still, as cynical as this may seem, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Everyone’s number has to come up eventually. Seriously, I don’t know how anyone can commute in the metroplex for any length of time and not think something like that. On the most part, I don’t mind DFW traffic, and I think it’s “friendlier” than most of the traffic in other big Texas cities, but when you pass one or two accidents both to and from work every single day, you gotta wonder.

I stopped wondering last week.

Here’s the recap:

This sounds weird, but I drive kind of instinctively. I don’t mean that I don’t use common sense, just that I get instinctive feelings about what other people are going to do when I look at them in their vehicles. Part of that comes from my dad telling me to watch the tires of a stopped car when you approach an intersection. Part of it is reading nonverbal cues. Part of it is stereotyping. Whatever it is, I can usually tell when someone’s about to cut me off, I’m usually right, and it’s kept me from being in an accident many times.

I knew this lady was going to pull her mini-van out of the Wal-Mart parking lot, too, but I didn’t know soon enough.

It’s crazy all the things I thought in the few seconds before we hit:

She’s coming out.

I’m going to hit her.

I need to swerve so I don’t hit her head on.

But only far enough for her to hit the front door, not Caelyn’s door. And not hard enough for us to tip or roll.

Keep your eyes open. Don’t tense up.

Maybe that’s not really a lot, but it seems like it to me. In fact, my brain knew what to do in that crisis far better than it did in the choking one. I figure that’s because my dad spent so much time telling me what to do in nearly every car situation, and I’ve only taken one CPR/Safety class during one afternoon, with pregnancy brain no less.

Anyway, the impact was louder and harder than I thought it would be considering how fast I was going — 35ish before breaking — and how fast she was going — just pulling out, but gunning it to cross two lanes and turn against traffic.

After we stopped, I could only hear and think one thing, “Caelyn’s crying.”

I looked back and saw that her car seat was tilted to the left, which shouldn’t have happened, and for a split second, felt the urge to panic. Instead I told myself she was probably just scared and to put it park, turn off the car, turn on my hazards, unbuckle my seatbelt, and get to her.

She has a bruise on her head (I think from her sippy cup), and I have 10 or 15 bruises on my legs (a few nasty), but nothing substantial. The other lady was fine too, besides feeling incredibly bad about not seeing me due to a truck in the right lane. Honestly, after I was certain Caelyn was okay, I felt awful for her because she felt so awful.

Her mini-van was hardly damaged, but I can’t say the same for my little Protege.

It certainly could’ve been worse. We could’ve been on the Tollway instead of on a friendly road in front of Wal-Mart (though that intersection IS horrible and most people believe the open space in the median is suited for 6 lanes of traffic instead of 2 passing cars). But that’s still a lot of damage for a car that’s almost 10 years old and didn’t cost all that much when I bought it brand new off the Abilene Mazda lot during Freshman Orientation at HSU.

All that to say, we spent the weekend dealing with the details (insurance, police reports, new car seat) and feeling sore. And, of course, figuring out what we were going to do about a car.

Well, we got a new one on Saturday!

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sad to say goodbye to my old one. It’s a modest car, but it was my first one (and it was paid-for-in-full). Nothing too exciting has ever happened in it, but I do love to drive, and I’ve done most of my driving in it. And I’m sentimental and love symbols. If you absolutely need a good reason for me to have cried about it (I stayed cool at the scene, but did tear up days later), how ’bout:

“We brought our first child home from the hospital in it.” (Great, I hadn’t thought of that one.)

But I love the new one already too.

I’ll save our adventures in car shopping and pics for another time. But I will tell you that it’s a silver 2007 Honda Accord EX-L, fully-loaded with gray leather interior and only 12,000 miles on it, and the price seemed chosen just for us. It’s certified with 100,000 miles worth of warranty and the previous owner was a real stickler, so it looks brand new. And it smells brand new too! It might seem petty, but I really didn’t want a car that smelled strange. It didn’t have to smell new, it just needed to have a scent that didn’t make my head hurt or gross me out. Plus, the car seat fits a gazillion times more securely in it because of the LATCH system with top and bottom tethers.

It just feels natural too. Maybe you’re not supposed to buy a car based on feelings, and I wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t buy one that didn’t feel right either.

I would end a post before it feels right, though, and I’m about to have to do just that. Caelyn’s up, thunder just rolled into Plano, I’ve written a ton already, and we’ve gotta hit a few more appointments before we make those last few checks on our Details List.

See you when we do!