Near Miss

Last week Noah wanted to earn some Play Station time, so I told him he could help me go across the road and gather the trash. The trash was kind of smelly, so I decided to just throw it in the back of our truck, which we keep over there, instead of putting it in the back of my van. As I drove up to our drive to drop it off, the puppy was there barking and jumping and it hit me that the smelly trash bags might attract some scavengers. So instead of stopping at the end of the drive, I pulled up to the cement in front of the garage and ran in to get some twist ties. I told Noah I would be right back and left the truck running.

I bopped into the living room to check on Ben who was sleeping, went back to the kitchen to grab a couple of twist ties, and headed for the door. Just as I put my hand on the back door knob and there was a big noise that sounded like pop cans being crushed.

I opened the door and was surprised to see the truck in the garage. Noah was behind the wheel with eyes as big as saucers. The truck was still moving forward slightly. Lucking he was not tall enough to actually reach the gas, so he was just idling forward and all the stuff at the front of the garage, like the refrigerator, a old table, cases of pop, garden tools, the gas grill, etc. stopped his forward movement. I was able to jump in and stop it from doing any more damage. Luckily only the old table and one case of pop were destroyed in Noah's first driving experience.

Now, I know I should never have left Noah alone in a running vehicle. However, with working on the other house, and stopping at one place or the other for just a second to grab something I forgot, I have been doing it a lot lately, and Noah had never even made a move to try to get in the front seat. But my brother and family were back the first couple weeks of July and he was teaching the kids how to drive a 4 wheeler, and Noah must have wanted to keep up his driving skills. He claims that he did not mean to put it in gear, and accidentally pulled down on the gear shift while trying to climb in the front seat to pretend to drive. But I am not sure how he could have done that and still stepped on the brake to get it in gear.

Noah knew he was in big trouble, but it did not hit him until he realized that lost Play station time instead of earning it. Then the tears started to roll.

We are just so greatful that he was not hurt and no real property damage occurred. Noah definatley had his guardian angel with him that day as there were so many things that could have gone wrong. Like the propane tank on the grill and the air bag that could have deployed. We just thank God that he is OK. And as a bonus, I don't think he will try driving again for a long, long time.