REASON 5,476 WHY I WON'T BE WINNING MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD

Once again this year, I am taking myself out of the running for the coveted Mom of the Year Award. So to the judges and committees who determine who is to win this award, here me now:

After the events of last night, I am officially out of the running.

Yesterday was an off day for K. She was up an hour early - coughing and complaining of being hungry. She did have a little cough and she was plenty hungry. She finished a cup of milk and banana before heading downstairs for breakfast.

The lost hour of sleep left her a little sluggish during the morning. She had a mini-breakdown at the park because another little girl was eating goldfish crackers and I did not have any crackers (of any kind) for her. To my credit, I did have sliced mango, grapes, and cheese for her. We left the park and headed home for lunch. She ate two bowls of broccoli-cheese pasta. (Maybe my little peanut is in the middle of a growth spurt!?!?) During lunch the man from the security company came to install our alarm system (an hour early). In addition to installing the hardware, which involved some drilling, he was all over our house. So K went down for a nap about an hour later than normal. Needless to say, by the time evening rolled around last night she was spent. She actually told me she was tired before we headed off to meet D at the metro around 6:30.

She finished her bath around 8:40 last night. She pitched a fit over who-knows-what before I convinced her it was time to go upstairs to sleep. We went into her room like we always do. She turned on her "music" (the white noise machine) and turned off her lights. Then she hit the floor running for one last game of "hiding". This has become part of our bedtime routine... in the dark room she hides from me, I count to five, and then she runs up to me with a big, "Ahhhhhhhh... found you!"

Last night she decided to "hide" on top of her big pillows. She dove head first thinking she was going to land on her pillows and become invisible. Instead, she dove head first into the metal bars of her crib. I heard her hit a little spring before the crying began. And I knew it hurt.

I turned on the lights before picking her up.

I grabbed her and and encouraged her to breath (because she is notorious for holding her breath when beginning to cry). It was a relief when I heard her begin to cry. She cried and cried. I finally convinced her to pick her head up off of my shoulder and look at me. She had a bloody cut along the bottom of her nose and a brush-burn along the top of her nose.

We went downstairs to get some love from D and to calm down. We returned upstairs for Tylenol and some cream (read: Neosporin). She did sleep soundly and woke up with only a small scratch on her nose. I left home before she was awake. D called me so that K could say hi. When I asked her about her nose, she started to cry.

Hopefully this event will not scar her for life.

Once she was asleep last night, I talked with D at length about what had happened and we decided that I need to be the grown-up and not allow a game of hiding in the dark.

I need to IPDE - identify, predict, decide, and execute - activities at night that will not cause bodily harm to my sweet, tired little girl.

And with those events and a lesson learned, I hereby present yet another reason why I will not be winning the mom of the year award for 2010.