I am a Real Mom

Through my work at Hearts at Home, I've been thinking a lot about Real Moms. I wrote a column about what it means to be a Real Mom that was in our local newspaper a few weeks ago and Hearts is having a contest to collect stories of real moms to be published on our blog.

I had one of those real mom moments this past weekend at the Kids Expo.

Asher and I went to the expo with some friends. Even though Asher and Moses are almost exactly the same age, Moses displayed a no fear attitude when it came to climbing on the bouncy toys. Asher needed more encouragement to try them out.

We eventually convinced Asher to climb to the top of the mountainous bouncy slide. He did a great job climbing up... and that is where he stayed. Whether he was afraid to slide down or just was having fun up at the top of the slide, I'm not sure. But it soon became apparent he was not going to be coming down until they started letting the air out of the slide at the end of the expo.

That left eight months pregnant mommy with few choices for retrieving her little boy. We tried sending his friends up to coax him down, but they weren't convincing enough and he remained way up there bouncing around near the ceiling.

So I did what a real mom would do. Yes, Baby and I climbed the bobbing and swaying ladder to the top of that slide in front of the thousands of onlookers (well maybe there weren't quite that many in line at the time). I grabbed my fearful son and slid down that bouncy slide to safety.

We both suffered plastic burns on our arms, but we were soon safely on the ground. I'm thinking I was the only pregnant woman to ride the bouncy slide that day!

But the choice to embarrass myself didn't require much deliberation - because real moms rescue their children from the tops of bouncy slides!