The Life and Times of Marek Lee

Marek is a third child. As such, he is not spoiled, pampered, or fussed over, in short; he's a survivor.

His sisters love him desperately and love to be in his face and space. They have taught him that a personal bubble of space is not necessary. I shudder at future lessons...

And although I joke that Marek is a third child and we pay slightly less attention to him, it's just that we have streamlined our parenting style. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Anyway, today, I saved Marek's life.

I'll let that sink in.

Maybe I'm exaggerating slightly. Maybe not. I'll let you decide.

I went to Hobby Lobby this morning with Marek, Teagen and McKenna while Madelynn was in school. I put Teagen in a cart and then Marek in a cart. For the record, both babies were buckled in. McKenna was in charge of pushing Marek's cart, but actually, I was pushing Teagen and pulling/guiding Marek. We selected all of the bolts of fabric I needed, thirteen in total, and we waited patiently while the lady cut two yards of each. All was going well until the clerk commented, "Your children are so well behaved."

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

C'mon lady! While I appreciate the compliment, everyone knows that you don't say things like that until you're walking out of the store and the potential for damage/harm is at zero! But she jinxed me.

Not two minutes later, McKenna decided she was done watching her cut fabric patiently and was hanging off the side of Marek's cart. Not the stout, sturdy Walmart cart, but the tall, plastic Hobby Lobby cart.

You guessed it. She pulled the cart over on it's side. Yes Marek was still buckled in his seat.

I saw this whole thing happen in slow motion. I slowly reached over and grabbed the front handle with one hand and used my other hand to grab Marek by his armpit. By sheer luck or God's grace, I caught him just as his head grazed the floor and was able to right the cart. I can still see the picture of him hanging upside down, buckled into that seat with me holding him by the armpit. And while I'll never forget that image, let's hope that experience doesn't stick with him for long.

So you decide. Saved a life. Saved a head from a bump. The real question is, would this have happened when Madelynn or even McKenna was his age?