Mortifying Moment

Today, I had my most mortifying moment as a parent. Heck, as a woman. It started off sweetly enough, with Grace hugging another toddler, and ended with me on the floor with my Hanes Her Way panties exposed for all the families worshipping in the baby cry room at church.

We were a few minutes late to church this morning so instead of trying to find an aisle seat, we headed straight for the cry room. As soon as we settled into the first row, the toddler boy right next to us was immediately smitten with Grace because he started to follow her around the room, smiling at her. Grace would run away and he persistently continued to follow.

I guess Grace warmed up to him eventually because a little while later, I saw her going to give him a hug. Maybe the boy didn't realize a teeny-tiny girl like Grace could give such a big hug, but the next thing I know, the two kids are toppling over, the little boy's head primed to hit the cement floor. I jumped up and dove towards the kids in an attempt to soften the landing, not caring at the moment that I had on high heels and a short dress. Thankfully, I was successful in preventing a possible concussion. But I was also successful in landing in the most ungraceful way imaginable. With my panties on display. And to add insult to (near) injury, even though I was able to prevent him from getting hurt, he cried anyway. I'm sure seeing a crazy lady dive straight for him startled the diapers off him.

I apologized profusely to his mama, who came running right over. And although she said it was all fine, she and her family ended up leaving the baby cry room a few minutes later. Great. I am now contemplating going to a different mass time, or finding a new church to attend altogether.

As soon as I got home, I emailed Mike to talk about the incident because, surely, it couldn't be as bad as the scene I kept replaying over and over again in my head. He is always the first one to tell me that it isn't a big deal, immediately making me feel better about whatever scenario I'm stressing about. But when he came back with, "Wow, Babe! I was embarrassed FOR you!" I knew this moment would go down as my most mortifying ever.

I almost didn't blog about it; I was that embarrassed. But I decided to go ahead and document it as ammunition in the future for when Grace gets older and she complains that I'm embarrassing her, as all mothers seem to inevitably do when their children become pre-teens. I can use this experience as payback!

Lounging around on the balcony during an afternoon thunderstorm.