July 10, 2012.
I dropped Owen this evening. It was almost 4 hours ago and
he is fine now. He has a big welt on his forehead and scratches all over, but
is alert, focused, and as cheerful as ever. Owen is fine, but I am still a bit
shaken. I expect to poke Haifa awake every hour to make sure he is still fine.
We had just finished dinner and I was holding Owen at the
picnic table. Zaid was fiddling with the propane tank on the campstove and
Haifa decided to put the stove away to end the fiddling. However, in doing the
job quickly, the propane tank remained open, spilling propane out into the air.
In a flash I had two thoughts: get the propane tank closed ASAP and keep the
kids away from it. Holding Owen, the only way for me to accomplish this was to
hold him in one hand, arm outstretched, and remove the hose from the propane
tank with the other. As I put this hastily thought out plan into action Owen
slipped from my grasp and fell about 2 feet to the gravel floor below. He fell
face first and immediately burst into tears.
Neither Haifa nor I really recall many of the details of the
next 5 minutes or so. Owen ended up in Haifa’s arms and I managed to corral the
propane. Zaid was a bit scared and so was still hanging around, which is good
because if he had decided to wander we would still be looking for him. 5
minutes more pass during which Zaid remained in the camp and Haifa alternately
consoled both Owen and me. Thankfully, our neighbouring campers, Jeff and Kay
from Fort Saskatchewan, had seen the scene unfold and came over. Their presence
shook us out of our shock and got us into action. A phone call to the Visitor
Centre revealed the small town of Elkwater has not even a doctor’s office and
the nearest Hospital was 45 minutes away in Medicine Hat. After 4 more phone
calls we managed to get the Parks Paramedic to come up and pay us a visit. By
the time she arrived Owen was mostly back to his old ways. He greeted her with
a huge smile and passed all of the concussion tests with flying colours.
Nevertheless, we now have her number on file and will be monitoring Owen all
night long.
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| Owen and I - none the worse for wear the following morning |
Aside from the stress and worry of the evening the day was
excellent. We broke camp early at Kinbrook Island and had a midmorning swim at
the, surprisingly, empty beach. The drive to Elkwater in the interprovincial
park of Cypress Hills proved to pass surprisingly well, Owen only required one
stop and Zaid had a long nap as well. After settling into our campground we
headed down to Elkwater Lake for another dip in the water to cool down before
heading back to camp and the stress to come.
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| Zaid and I playing in Elkwater Lake - Cypress Hills |
Tomorrow we head to Saskatchewan for the day, visiting Fort
Walsh and the Cypress Hills Massacre National Parks sites before coming back to
our camp in the Alberta side of the park. We are planning a long drive to Regina
for the day after that, bringing us fully into our third province.
It is now 52 hours later and Owen is fine
ReplyDeleteWhen Alex was an infant I put him on the "change table" we had in the kitchen, in front of the windows, while I did kitchen clean-up stuff. I knew he would be safe, because he had not yet begun to move around on his own. Or so I thought. In an instant he had wiggled to the ede and fallen off the table. As luck had it he landed in a laundry basket on the floor, just below the table. He survived, but obviously I still feel guilty.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was about 2 our family took our own road trip in a camper van. We stopped to eat at a restaurant and parked in the adjacent parking lot which was covered in gravel. Ed apparently thought Alex would get a kick out of being chased, so he chased him. Alex fell face first into the gravel. A piece of gravel embedded itself in his face, near his eye. Eventually the gravel came out, but he still has the scar to show for that misadventure.
It is a miracle our children survive our parenting bloopers. Fortunately, it seems they almost always do.
What a wonderful family adventure the four of you are having. I hope you meet up with Alex and Jenna in Chicago.
Love,
Susan