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Big Mickey walked out to play with a helmet on and knee and elbow pads. He also had a mouth guard on as well as goggles to protect his ears. At least in my fantasy world he did. You see, I have these horrible visions sometimes.

Visions that paralyze me and make me wanna cry. Not just cry, but "cry UGLY!"

Although I've always been a cautious parent, I wasn't always this paranoid. And I hear more and more that other moms feel the same way I do.

Which is a relief, you know? It's nice knowing you're not the only paranoid freak of a mother that wants to shelter their children because they are afraid of what might happen. We can even see hidden dangers in our own home that might hurt our children if we aren't careful.

What is my ideal playroom?

A room where the walls are padded and none of the toys or furniture have sharp edges. In fact, if we could make every toy a plush, smooth one that would be GREAT!

Alas, reality is completely the opposite therefore... accidents happen.

A few years ago Big Mickey was crushed.. YES crushed by a coin machine at a local pizza joint. It broke his leg, busted his head up from three different places.. one of them being his mouth. Luckily he didn't lose any teeth but he split his lip from right under his nose all the way down.

Watching his lip parted in two like that and flapping away with blood gushing out of his mouth, not being able to see the extent of the damage was awful. I don't wish that fear on anybody.

The emergency room staff kept saying how lucky he was that he didn't damage any internal organs.

I agree.

I mean sure.. his face is scarred up a bit and his leg broke from the impact. And yes.. his head looked like it was going to explode at the time covered in open gashes, bruises on each side of head (front, side, back etc...)

 But all that is temporary. Not like internal organ damage. That shit carries for life.

The other day Annequin was playing in the pool. He dove off our diving rock towards the side, I think? I least that's how the story goes. Anyways, he went too far and hit his head HARD on the side step.

Have you ever seen those Tom and Jerry cartoons where they beat on each other and they show an animated bruise magically GROW before our very eyes? That's how it happened. That bruise just popped right up and kept growing and growing until we put an ice pack on it.

A few days ago Big Mickey and the neighborhood boys were playing baseball in my front yard. They play with a wiffle ball, but since they lost the bat they've been using their regular little league bats. Apparently they decided to switch it up and use a soccer ball instead.

Big Mickey was the first one at bat. He swung at the soccer ball and then the bat bounced right back.. onto his face. He split his lip up pretty good and knocked a couple of teeth loose. One was a baby tooth, but the other one was a permanent one.

"Luckily," the dentist said, "his root is intact. See that? So yes, it's a little loose, but it should be OK after a few days. However, his baby tooth is gone!"

No big loss. It's just a baby tooth. Right?

Well then YESTERDAY... Annequin and his friends were rough housing in the pool. Annequin somehow went down, came back up and started screaming, "I BROKE MY TOOTH! I BROKE MY TOOTH. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

I immediately panicked, of course. But then did the quick mommy recovery thing and took a deep breath and ran to him to assess the damage. No blood. At all. Whatsoever. Just a tooth. Or should I say HALF a tooth. The other half broke off.

I called the dentist and got his answering service. Left a message. The dentist called back. He said, "OH NO! Did Big Mickey finish the job on the other tooth?"

Mr. Twinkie laughed and said, "NO, this time it's Annequin. He broke his front tooth right in half. He looks like a vampire. It looks like a fang."

The dentist assessed from Mr. Twinkie's statements that it wasn't a medical emergency. He assure us that he could fix it. Just make an appointment.

So I will. And hopefully this will be the last time I have to make a call like that. In fact, I'm sure it is.

Because from now on I'm going to make sure that every time they go out to play they are wearing knee and elbow pads, a mouth guard, a helmet, goggles, and maybe even some some tissue in their back pockets in case they fall on their little bums.

Or making them move in to a bubble house.

OK, maybe I'm not. But I sure wish I could!