Saturday, November 29, 2008

Day 431 - The Thin Red Line


For my parent's 40th anniversary, Anne and I decided to treat my parents to a family portrait. I called up and made an appointment at a very fancy place that takes coupons (i.e. Sears). Our appointment was for today.

We usually gauge the time the kids need to go to sleep by the way they walk. If they walk in a straight line, they're not tired. If they start to wobble, bed time is near. And if they start to trip and stumble like me after one beer, then it's time to hit the sack.

But last night, Emma had an accident. It was time to brush their teeth. Lisa grabbed Andrew, and I called out to Emma. She crawled out from under a chair, smiled, and stood up. I put my hands out and Emma began to walk towards me. Unfortunately, she tripped and somehow did a 360 and fell into the corner of the wall. I tried my best to grab her, but failed. It happened so fast, yet everything moved in slow motion. If Emma had two pistols and there were doves flying in the background, it would've made a perfect John Woo scene.

I was expecting blood on Emma's face, so I used a yard stick to turn her over. I didn't want blood on my white t-shirt. Thankfully, there was no blood and not a mark on her face. All we had was a very sad girl in pain. Crazy Grandma Ichikawa grabbed an ice pack and placed it on Emma's face which calmed her down immediately. We brushed Emma's teeth and put her to bed.

When Emma woke up the next morning, I checked her forehead to see if she had a bruise but there was nothing. After a sigh of relief, I pulled the pacifier out of her mouth and lo and behold what did I find...besides a piece of turkey. Emma had a red line from the corner of her nose to the bottom of her upper lip!

So we cancelled our family portrait today and rescheduled it for tomorrow. As the day has gone by, the redness has faded away. We're hoping by tomorrow the red line will be hardly visible at all. Which is fine by me because I don't think I looked very handsome today. I'm hoping I will look better tomorrow, but I've been saying that for the past thirty years. Nobody in my family is holding their breath for me...

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