Yesterday evening, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the peace and quiet of our home. Instantly, everyone dropped what they were doing and ran frantically to the dining room, where Ayla was still screaming in panic.
Of course, as a parent, the usual horrors run through your head. The first thing you think, is 'pinch.' For kids, pinching and choking seem to be the most common injuries. Petra and I both expected to run around the corner and see Ayla's fingers stuck in a closed door, or pinched by a toy, or see her tongue pinched between a spring-loaded jaw clip for womens' hair or bags of chips. Smashed finger, pinched toe, something along those lines.
The next thing you think, is maybe she's stuck. Stuck with her shirt around her head, head stuck between the stairway rail ballusters, stuck underneath a dining room chair.
Then there's the whirlwind of everything else... electrical outlet shock, boiling water spill, throat stabbed after falling with an object in the mouth, broken glass, or whatever the mind can dream up.
All of these things ran through my head in about 1.5 seconds as I sprang from the couch to the dining room. Petra noted that this is the loudest, most agonizing scream she has ever heard from Ayla.
In the dining room, Ayla is pinned against the back of one of our tall dining room chairs, gripped with fear and looking to jump. For the last ten minutes, she had been watching a stowaway--a ladybug that we found crawling on the Christmas tree yesterday. Per Lily's suggestion, we gave the ladybug a small apple slice in a bowl, and she (Ms. Bug) contentedly sat on that piece of apple for half an hour. Then she got tired of sitting on the apple slice, and much to Ayla's horror, the bug opened her wings and flew right onto Ayla's hand.
We comforted Ayla... then we couldn't stop laughing. "I mean it, Matty," Petra said, "loudest scream ever!"
0 comments:
Post a Comment