The monkeys’ doctor is right!

It’s Thursday afternoon. I’m sitting in my office, and Claire is in her room.

All of a sudden, I hear the unmistakable KUH-BLOOM-BAH-DUM sound of someone tumbling off the bed.

You know that sound.

I just knew she’d fallen off the bed, and from the proximity of the sound, it was off the end of her bed. At least, I was hoping it wasn’t over her rail. Either way, the fall isn’t too far…but still. It’s not a sound you like to hear.

I’m up in a flash, in the 0.5 seconds it takes to get to her room, she’s standing there crying. I scoop her up and run to the kitchen. I have the freezer door open and an icepack on her head in one smooth motion.

We’re experts at this routine.

All the while, I’m telling her it will be okay.

“What happened!?” I say, as we get settled into the closest kitchen chair.

“I fell off my bed,” she says between sobs.

“What did you land on?”

“The floor.”

And it was all I could do to stifle my laughter. Really? The floor? With such a literal answer, she is definitely my daughter!

“I know you landed on the floor, sweetie. I mean what body part did you land on the hardest?” I ask, looking for blood.

“My head.”

Good. I’d guessed correctly and already had an icepack on her head.

“What were you doing that made you fall off your bed?”

“I was hanging upside down.”

Again, I have to bite my tongue. She was hanging upside down!? From what!? And, she admitted this out loud!?

“Well, that’s why you fell on your head! You shouldn’t hang upside down off your bed.”

“I shouldn’t?” she said, genuinely confused. “Oh, you’re right, Momma! The monkey’s doctor** DID say no more monkeys hanging off the bed!”

“And now you know why…”

“Yeah!  You really DO fall on your head!”

**The other day at the StoryTime at the library, the theme was monkeys. One of the books they read was about the famous “no more monkeys jumping on the bed!” routine…only it involved all kinds of other naughty things monkeys do. And, yes, hanging off the bed also resulted in a monkey falling on her head. How apropos.