mckay's necklace

McKay loves to watch out the window whenever Brian is on his way home. He does it all the time.

A few Saturday's ago I was cleaning out the fridge, which is in close proximity to this window. Brian was coming home from a long run and McKay was anxiously waiting at the window. He was playing around on top of the trunk that we have right in front of the window. He had pulled up the blinds all the way so the cord was long and he was just messing around with the blinds. I told him a couple times to stop, but was distracted when Brian called. Still cleaning and talking I heard McKay screaming and I looked up from the fridge and there he was. . .

. . .the cord wrapped around his neck, kneeling on a pile of bags right next to the trunk- his neck and body stretched as tall as they could go. He had wrapped the cord around his head and neck several times and then lost his balance and fell off the trunk. I threw the phone down and started unwrapping the cord. It was around his little neck so tight I could hardly get a grip on it. McKay had a look of complete terror in his eyes. As soon as he was free I pulled him into my arms and just hugged him for several minutes while he cried and I tried not to.

His neck was red like this immediately. I felt sick. I felt so horrible. My poor little boy almost strangled himself while I was eight feet away. I was so grateful that I was right there when this happened. McKay and Elle always play on that trunk and play with the blinds and it easily could have happened when I was in another room. I've read a hundred times in my Parents magazines about the dangers of blind cords, but I guess I just thought it would never happened to us. We were both really freaked out by the experience.

This picture was taken a few days later. He's got a nice permanent necklace now, that has faded a lot, but is still definitely there. Brian is wondering why I am posting about this tragedy on our blog- fearing that our kids will be taken in to protective services if I publish it for the world to see. And the reason is this: Maybe someone who reads this will be more conscious than I was about cords in their home.

And also because I wanted to show you all my baby's neck. I mean, look at it!