"ph-thump, ph-thump, ph-thump, crrunchtk!!"

What was that?

Oh, THAT.

THAT would be me. fallingassoverteakettletotheverybottomofthestairs.
Taking down the vacuum with me, because I knocked it over with my head.

My first thought was of the 4 (yes 4!) children in my den. (I have an extra two-year-old today while her mother resolves nanny issues.More on her later.) What will the EMS people do with them when they load me into the ambulance? Who will feed the baby? They better remember to get extra shorts, shoes, and Elmo undies for the Critter, because to NOT have backup is guaranteeing problems.

As I lay there whimpering and taking stock in all the parts that hurt to see if I could still move them, I heard a small voice ask "Are you OK, Mama?"

Uh, yeah, I think so.

I thought I might have broken my right thumb, and I have some righteous rug burn all down my left leg, but I can walk without limping now, and I think I'll live.

Back to the extra kid. So we're up in my bedroom and I was brushing my hair. Happy Girl comes in and wants me to brush her hair. This is one of the things I'm looking forward to with Lulu: playing beauty shop.

I get out the brush, a few hair bands, and go after it. I gave her two pigtails over her ears. Very cute. While I was doing this the boys come into the bathroom and ask what we're doing, and I say "I'm giving Happy Girl pigtails", wherein they both insists that they need them too. Only they don't say "pigtails" but rather "cocktails." As in "I need 2 cocktails!" Now these boys have short hair, so a regular hair band won't work on them. I dug around in the hair accessory drawer and found some of those baby clips from several years ago (you know the ones shaped like butterflies that you'd wear like a headband? yea, like those, but not butterflies) and give them both "cocktails". This sends them into fits of ecstasy, yelling "We've got cocktails! We've got cocktails!"

My body hurts. I wish I had some cocktails right about now....but the real kind.