The Crying Game

• Yesterday, Olivia Mae decided to swing sideways, directly in the path of her sister & the neighbor girl and more importantly, the glider they were on. Refusal of ice and anything that might have lessened the pain. Nothing major just another black & blue mark for the patchwork of summer boo-boos. Screaming. Crying.

• A few hours later, she climbed onto the back of my computer chair, although I've told her roughly 54,123 times not to. At one point I stood up not realizing she was still hanging there. She hit the ground with the chair on top of her. Screaming. Crying.

• At dinner, she showed off her gymnastic skills by vaulting & swinging between the buffet and table. Not once. Numerous times. She is pretty darn good at that sort of stuff so she didn't get hurt. Protested food. Cried. Refused food.

• At bedtime Frank discovered her face down on her bed screaming & hysterical. After a short while she whispered to me that she'd stuck a wad of paper up her nose. From those flower decals on her wall that she's been slowly removing. Who knew that's what she's been doing with them? After much drama, involving her frantic parents dangling her upside down and holding one nostril shut and her mouth shut. Cathrynn screaming in the background because she woke up from all the noise. After numerous attempts, we gave each other that look. The look that means a trip to the city's Children's Hospital at 10pm. In defeat and to console her and stop the screaming & crying, I hugged her. And discovered the wad of paper tangled in her hair. Returned her to her bed with stern lecture of what not to put our nose, ears, eyes, and as an after thought, vagina.

• Roughly two minutes later Olivia arrived in my room. She'd ripped her toe nail half off during the previous chaos. On a good day routine nail trimming requires both parents - one flung over her kicking legs, so this, of course, resulted in screaming & crying.

• Too wound up to sleep, she harassed me until about midnight, demanding an apple and a cuke when she passed out on the sofa. (why didn't I start drinking much earlier & pass out???)
  

• What seemed like a minute later Frank was telling me he was leaving for work and reminding me that I wanted to get the girls up now, at 5:30am, to see the lunar eclipse. Yeah right, wake them up. It seemed like a great parental educational event at 6pm the night before. Now - no way Jose.
  

• At 7:43am, Cathrynn burst in my room hysterical that Daddy didn't wake us to see the lunar eclipse. I admitted that I was to blame for her missing it. And she cried silent sobs until she was a patchwork of red hives and her eyes were pink. I kept the pillow over my head until Olivia came and saw that at some point I'd knocked over the great domino exhibit she'd done on my floor. Screaming. Crying.

I give up.