Meghan and Jon are still here visiting and they’re headed to the Grand Canyon and off through Utah tomorrow. Yesterday, after taking Mum to the airport, we were sitting in the living room and Claire was running around playing. I cannot believe how stable she is on her own two feet now, and I was just amazed at everything she was doing. Then she climbed up on top of the "Little Tikes" picnic table near the sliding doors, and I remembered Laura commenting when Claire was on the picnic table Saturday.

"Aren’t you worried she will fall off?" …
"Nope, she does this all the time. Then when she’s done, she climbs down."
"Are you sure you’re not worried?"
"Yep."

So while we sat there last night playing Continental, Claire climbed up on the picnic table in her new hand-me-down purple Stride rite shoes, and I mentioned the conversation I had with Laura. Donna said, "as long as she doesn’t try to go forward off the table"… and as if in slow motion, all four of our heads and all eight of our eyes turned to focus on Claire who had proceeded to lean forward as far as she could to reach the blinds with her pudgy little hands to grasp the long white pieces of plastic. As I felt the word "Noooooooooooooooooooooo" echo up through my larynx and between my teeth, Claire toppled forward, headfirst, onto the picnic table bench, and onto the window.

She screamed and cried until we gave her a pacifier and a teddy bear ice pack before she fell asleep after having one of the most traumatic experiences of her 366 1/3 days of life. We shrugged our shoulders and finished our card game before rushing the sleeping baby into the car to go bowling. We didn’t have time to change her diaper or remove the pacifier, but I sure did take a moment to admire the nice new shiner on her right eye.