boat coat.

ok, so i debated whether or not i would write a post about this, mainly because it is yet another example of my missteps as a parent. but hey, if nothing else this blog is intended to be a real documentation of our lives and i think it's important to include the good, the bad and the ugly. plus i think i lost all my pride as a mom when i locked bennett in the car. (remember that?) so anyway, here goes...

we spent memorial day weekend at the lake with my family. we drove up late friday afternoon, arriving in time to meet my dad for a late dinner. he took the pontoon to the restaurant and we just drove straight there when we got into town. it was already past when bennett normally eats dinner, so when we heard it would be over an hour before we would even get a table, we decided to call around to see if we could get a table somewhere else sooner. another restaurant could get us in right away, so we decided to head over there. joe drove the car, and my dad, me and the boys went on the boat.

we arrived at the restaurant's boat dock and i got bennett and myself off the boat onto the dock to help my dad get it tied up. as i was trying to hold the boat steady and keep bennett by me, bennett reached for the door of the boat, which then swung open, causing bennett to lose his balance and fall into the lake between the boat and the dock. he didn't have a life jacket on- it was back at the house, to which we hadn't yet been. obviously i panicked, dropping to my knees on the dock and reaching in the water to feel for him. my dad was yelling "where is he? where is he?" i couldn't see him, but thank God i felt his leg, grabbed hold of him and pulled him out. he coughed for a second and in a scared little voice said "mama!" and hugged me. i lost it at that point and was shaking and crying. fortunately i think bennett was more scared by my reaction than by the actual fall in the lake. he kept saying "it ok, mama!"

i honestly wasn't really able to shake my anxiety the rest of the night. i kept having thoughts of what could've happened running through my mind. what if he had gotten stuck under the boat or the dock? what if he had hit his head when he fell in? what if i wouldn't have felt his leg when i reached in for him? my dad reminded me to try to think about what did happen, rather than what might've happened. he also said the water was only three feet deep there and he was about to jump in as i got bennett out. he said he was always going to be ok.

God was watching over us for sure and i'm so thankful for his protection. if nothing else, this experience can serve as an extremely scary reminder to us that we need to always, always have the boys in life jackets when we are on or near the water. it's easy to get too comfortable with the lake since we spend so much time there, but we need to be sure we don't let that happen. bennett was apparently completely unphased by the whole experience and had a blast on the boat the rest of the weekend. and he is well aware that we always wear our "boat coat," as he calls it.