Duck, Mannequin

Taking four year old boys to a shop designed for 12 year old tweens is never truly a good idea, but like other moms who can't afford nanny's, or babysitters, I had no choice.

I promised Drama girl ONE outfit from Justice, this outrageously overpriced store stocked full with tween dream clothes, knick knacks, trinkets et al, all with cutely dressed tween mannequins.

I did a decent job of pretending to be able to control my sons, admonishing them when they were about to do something particularly destructive, but for the most part, I just wanted Drama Girl to HURRY UP.

I had both of the boys right BEHIND me, and they were behaving well enough that I turned to Drama girl to look at an outfit she picked out.

I'd turned my back on them for about 20 nanoseconds, not surely a full second, when I hear a soft, 'aahh' and then, a louder ahhh which was about to turn into a full fledged cry. I turn around and see...

....


My son's head stuck between the legs of a tween mannequin that he had managed to topple over onto himself in 20 nano seconds. His fingers were UNDER the mannequin thing.

So there he was.
My son.
Head stuck between the legs of a tween mannequin wearing skorts and a cute sleeveless matching top, hand stuck under it.

The arm fell off, of course.

So I pull the stupid mannequin off his big head.
Mind you, I wasn't too careful about it. I figured if his head was REALLY stuck it wouldn't matter if I yanked it up over his head, it wouldn't budge. But his head wasn't FULLY stuck, it was just too heavy, and a tight fit, so I jiggled it over him and then realized his fingers were stuck under the board the mannequin stood on.

I took if off and picked up my sobbing, crying, very naughty four year old Bear.

I checked his fingers, only scratched, no bleeding or crushed bones.

We sat in an obnoxiously bright pink tween chair while Drama Girl tried on her outfits, and we talked about how it wasn't such a good idea, this sticking your head between mannequin legs.

It's a measure of my mommyhood style that my first response was "So, what did we learn about playing with mannequins?"

And yes, he was fine five minutes later, albeit very clingy, and suddenly overcome with panic at the thought that he'd be on the moon all alone and not be able to find his house...
...

ALL I said was, maybe he could wait on the moon while we shopped, that's all....