My baby Emma fell down the stairs yesterday, I was horrified. Luckily she had only made it to the 4th step, they are not carpeted and if she had fallen from the top... Oye, I don't even want to think about it. She managed to hit her head in several places. I started to yell at Anna for not closing the gate when she came downstairs yesterday morning, but quickly stopped. I am the adult here, and it's my responsibility to make sure the gate is closed, not my 5 year old.
I heard 5 loud thuds and then crying. I panicked because I couldn't find her at first, then when I saw that the gate was open, I freaked. I calmed her a bit, then stripped her to look for bumps, bruises and broken bones. John took us to the ER, and everything looked ok. She never lost consciousness, and cried right away, but I wanted to take her in anyway. I'm no Britney Spears , y'all. Whether or not my kid has any signs of injury, I'm gonna take them in. I would hate to make a stupid mistake that I would regret for the rest of my life.
The ER nurses said that I shouldn't worry, that they see a lot of these types of injuries, and that babies usually bounce well. The thought that hordes of women were bringing their toddlers in for falling failed to comfort me. On the contrary, I have resolved to avoid tap water here in town completely. Well, there has to be an explanation for mass stupidity, right? Uh, wait... That's right.
Paint chips.The whole ordeal must have really wiped her out because she slept all night without waking her normal 2-3 times, and she took a nap after being up for only an hour this morning. I asked her if she wanted to go night-night, making the sign for sleep. She responded with a hearty head nod. After and hour and a half, she was her normal perky self.
Anna, on the other hand is experiencing pain of another sort.
Remember when I was telling you about 4 months ago that Anna was completely beside herself over a boy in class? What
was his name... Oh yeah, Eric. The crush for Eric has officially bitten the dust. My sweet (mostly) 5 year old has experienced her first Hollywood crush. Sheesh.
If any of you have children between the ages of 4 and 12, you may be aware of a little movie that was on the Disney channel called
High School Musical. My blood runs cold as
Bop to the Top or whatever the heck it's called claws it's way through my brain at the very mention of the movie. *Sigh,* Anyway, this young man is the current object of her affliction, er- I mean affection.
His name is Zac Efron and he plays the lead in the movie. The movie is kind of cute and funny, a cleaner version of Grease for today's generation. Man, what am I, 80 or something?
Today's generation, I sound like my grandma.
( let the digressing begin...)
The very first song,
Start of Something New reminded me of something, I couldn't remember at first but then I realized it was
I Had the Time of My Life from the movie
Dirty Dancing. That alone should have the average person cringing, and in my mind
High School Musical is guilty by association.. *My apologies to the reader who
does like Dirty Dancing, no offense is meant. I just really
hate that movie* I do like that the movies avoids the whole "must exchange saliva" dilemma, has a positive message, and overall is kid friendly.
As far as the crush goes,I have to admit that my girl has good taste. He has a young David Cassidy look to him, and he looks like he would be the kind of boy to bring flowers for his date and his date's mother. Anna drew a picture of him and put it in her locket, the very locket that used to carry Eric's likeness. She showed me her drawing and blushed.
"It's not very good," she said with a tinge of sadness. So what did I do? What any good mom would do, I fanned the flames of her obsession by printing out a picture for her locket. She was so happy and embarrassed at the same time, she didn't know what to do with herself. At bed time, she confided to me that she couldn't sleep because she couldn't stop thinking about him.
This morning she told her dear old dad that we were getting on her nerves teasing her about Zac. Later she told me that he isn't her
boyfriend, she just likes him.
I cannot get the music out of my head. Between the Disney channel's quarter hourly propaganda , the CD we bought her last week, and now the DVD she bought with her graduation money *insert whimper here*, I am slowly going mad. I was walking around singing
Bop to the Top, and my husband
begged me to stop singing it. It's not my fault, I have been gradually tortured and conditioned over the last 2 months. I didn't beat them, so I joined them. I am a product of my environment?
Ok, snap out of it... No more
bopping. I have to cut the kid some slack on her obsession because I distinctly remember being completely head over heels for Blue Hawaii Elvis at that age. Whenever I heard his voice I would drop everything (or at least whatever a 5 year old might be doing) and go kiss the television screen. I loved Elvis so much that when he became Old and Bloated Vegas Elvis, I didn't care. I had tacked the album cover to my door, and it stayed there for years until I left home, even after I knew better.
So, (as my brother says) to make a short story long... I guess we have to honor her wishes. This is serious. No more teasing or joking, because love is no laughing matter. I know how it feels to irrationally love a person I could never even hope to meet. I know how it feels to not be able to fall asleep because the very thought of him quickens the heart and the breath all in the same moment. Elvis-schmelvis, I am talking about my husband folks! He had me on pins and needles, waiting for him to ask me out, until finally I made the first move. It was torture. Now I (and my clones) get to return the favor for the rest of his life. *cheeky grin*
