The Little One's Going to be The Death of Me. Seriously.

Last week we were walking the dog, the two littles and I, while Little Man rode his bike a bit ahead of us. Nemo was still in patch time, which he has for 3.5 hours a day now. We live in a neighborhood that is a series of rings with townhouses only on the outside of the rings, with wooded islands in the middle. We like to walk the dog on the other side of the street, on the edge of the woods, so that he doesn't go to the bathroom in anyone's yard, but the drawback is that there are no sidewalks on that side. Fortunately the neighborhood is fairly quiet, and this isn't a problem. There are always a lot of people walking (we aren't the only ones walking our dog in the woods) and kids playing in the street and the people that frequent the neighborhood know this and drive accordingly.

Usually.

Usually it's delivery trucks that give us trouble. There's a UPS driver that got reamed out by the kids' school bus driver once because he was driving too fast and recklessly. Our regular FedEx drivers have gotten used to the neighborhood, and most other drivers, once they come here once or twice, learn and drive slowly.

So we were walking the dog, and as we walked around the island directly across from our row of townhouses a van for a dry cleaning service drove by too fast coming into the neighborhood. We yelled a bit and generally commented that they were driving too fast for this neighborhood with kids and dogs and bikes and such all around, and we continued on our walk.

As we walked, Nemo kept running ahead, picking up sticks and rocks and other types of detritus that little boys like. There's only one way into and out of our neighborhood, through a stopsign with a speedbump next to it which does nothing to stop people from running it. We were a couple of houses away from the stop sign, on the wooded side while Pete sniffed around the fire hydrant.

The delivery van that had been driving too fast coming in to the neighborhood probably wasn't going to stop for the stopsign, but we were standing there staring at him and that probably saved Nemo's life. Because not two seconds later he decided to bolt across the street back to the sidewalk, right in front of the delivery van that was accelerating from the stop sign.

I screamed Nemo's name and the van's windows were open and they stopped about a foot in front of Nemo; I don't think they had any idea Nemo was in front of them, because he's only four and too short for them to see him. He looked up at the van in terror and dashed to the sidewalk on the other side as the van veeeeeery slooooowly went on its way. Little Man, who was ahead of us, told me that he heard them saying "What the hell just happened?!" as they drove past him.

I crossed after the van, got in Nemo's face and shouted "Nemo! You were almost killed! You NEVER cross the street without Mommy or Daddy!" and I burst into tears and he burst into tears and I picked him up and hugged him and carried him a ways, like I did when he was a toddler. I reminded him again and again that Mommy and Daddy have always told him this, and that was nearly a very very bad situation.

My hands shook for probably a hour or so after we got home. Later that afternoon, Nemo came to me and said "Mama? That was a BIG truck in front of me." I pulled him up into my lap and said, "Yes, bug, it was." He put his head on my shoulder for a bit. "Mama? I only cross with you or Daddy," he said softly.

I hope he learned his lesson. I've got a bum ticker and it can't take much of that kind of neighborhood excitement.

 

Comments

[bethany]

wow, so glad he's safe! takes years off your life, doesn't it? made me shake just to read it. sounds like he got it though, may it never happen again.