Seriously?!?!

Yesterday was July 4th. I had to work most of the day, but I got home around 5:45 PM. Laur and Erin were at Laur's parents' house, and Brian was on his way out to a BBQ, so I had the house to myself for a little while. I fired up the grill and made myself a couple of chicken burgers with Sweet Baby Ray's sweet & spicy BBQ sauce, and settled into the couch in the 75 degree living room (which incidentally felt meat locker cold, considering the temp's outside were approaching triple digits). It being Independence Day, I figured I should be able to easily find something patriotic on the boob tube, but after several minutes of fruitless channel surfing, I gave up and settled on Star Wars (now know as Episode IV, A New Hope).

Shortly thereafter, Laur and Erin arrived at home. Erin was somewhat hyper, having spent the day with Mommy & Aunt Keara splashing around in the kiddie pool, and eagerly anticipating the East Hanover fireworks which are clearly visible from our front steps. She was in Super Silly Erin mode, running around like a maniac (inside the house) & talking in all sorts of weird voices. She was also trying to deliberately gross me out by licking her hand and trying to touch me with the slobbery hand and shouting "smell my breath" while blowing in my face. Erin was being a little annoying, but I attributed this to her level of excitement at the impending fireworks show, and thus cut her some slack. That's when she decided to push the envelope.

As I sat reading the newspaper, Erin climbed onto the couch, stood facing me with her toes touching my leg, and fell backwards, keeping her body rigid as a board as she fell. She landed with a ploof sound on the couch and burst into hysterical laughter.

"Erin. Don't do that again. You could get hurt," I told her as I looked at her. She pouted for a second and I went back to reading my newspaper. Then, before I could even react, she was standing next to me and falling backwards again.

-PLOOF-

More hysterical laughter.

"What did I just tell you?! Don't do that again! You're going to get hurt! Do you understand?!"

Another pout, followed by a very unhappily whispered, almost hissed, "Yes."

Once again, back to reading my paper. I'm now reading the same paragraph for the third time. Then, to my surprise, Erin is standing next to me and falling backwards again. And in a flash, she hits the couch cushion like before, except this time she lands a little awkwardly, hitting a throw pillow and a couple of sections of the newspaper that were sitting on the couch cushion. This, coupled with her momentum, carried her right off the couch and squarely onto the hardwood floor... head first.

The thud was at once heart-stopping and nauseating... I was off the couch in a flash, but not before she could begin sobbing and crying uncontrollably. Laur, who had been in another room, was in the living room so fast that I swore she had been beamed there from the Enterprise. I told her that Erin had hit her head, and she sprung into action, heading to the kitchen and returning with an icy can of seltzer water and a towel to apply to the side of Erin's head. Erin already had a bump developing just above her right ear, where her head had hit the ground. She was still sobbing, As Laur and I comforted her and examined her head, we began asking her questions and giving her a gentle lecture about why it is so important to listen to Mommy and Dadoo when they tell her things. Right smack in the middle of my wonderful "listen to your parents" speech, Erin said something that caught us both so off-guard that we couldn't help but laugh. It went something like this:

"...and that's why it is so important that you listen to Mommy or me when we tell you to do something..."

"Dwy stulgit twatch thufwurx?" Bear in mind that Erin was still crying uncontrollably at this point. I looked up at Laur, and she returned my puzzled expression.

"What was that, Sweetie?" Laur asked Erin.

Erin sighed a big sigh and asked, "Do (sniff) I (gasp) still (big swallow) get to (sniff sniff) watch (gasp sniff) the fireworks?"

This was too much for Laur or myself... we had no recourse but to laugh. Here Erin has a knot on the side of her head the size of a golf ball, and her only concern is whether or not she is going to miss the fireworks!

The epilogue to this story is that Erin did indeed get to see the fireworks, and we even got her laughing... Laur by asking Erin to identify how many fingers she was holding up, and me by having her stuffed fish Gus put on a little show. Oh, and we did call the doctor, who reassured us that she was probably fine and told us what signs to watch for to rule out something serious like a concussion or fractured skull. Erin and I watched a good bit of Alvin & the Chimunks The Squeakquel, and we all had some laughs talking about Erin's little accident later on in the night. Needless to say, I think she learned her lesson, and as usual, she learned it the hard way.