Okay, my darling little daughter cracks me up! This will start out negative, but I promise it will go somewhere more upbeat. Just 7 months ago, Meriel did this to herself (see picture). Well, she's at it again. On Tuesday, she was out jumping on the trampoline. She was either striking exaggerated poses in mid-air or throwing herself against the surrounding netting that's supposed to protect her (and it probably did), and in doing so, she must have come down funny on her leg, badly hurting her knee. I heard her crying from inside the house and came out to find her on the ground, trying to make it back to the house, but unable to walk. We took her in to the doctor the next day to make sure nothing was broken, and nothing was. It appears to be just a sprain.So her mobility has been limited these past couple of days, but she's improving quickly. I set her up on the couch this morning with ice pack, water, and the TV on while I folded four days' worth of laundry in the next room. After a while, I called over to ask her if she needed to take a trip to the potty, and got no answer. For about a year now, she has been perfecting the art of sneaking outside while I'm not looking, and she had done so again. But how? Apparently it didn't hurt her to crawl, so she had simply crawled out the door, over our pathway, and into Grandma's backyard, and had been happily play-crawling there for a while.
When the other kids explained how she had been crawling all over the yard, I immediately thought of the famous Andrew Wyeth painting called "Christina's World" depicting his friend whose legs had been paralyzed since childhood. She was too strong-willed, and independent to sit in a chair all day, so she would drag herself wherever she needed to go.
So I grabbed my camera and made my own version:
Meriel's World.
That's my irrepressible Merry-Bell!
Here she is after having reached her destination:
And here she is, exuding huge amounts of smug satisfaction with herself:
8 comments:
I lucked out on this one: Rachmaninov happened to pull up on your playlist, and it was a perfect fit for a determined, paralyzed crawl across Meriel's World. (If slightly melodramatic.) I do wish we lived closer so I could absorb her determination in person. Sigh.
What would we do without Meriel? She is the seasoning in our soup of life.
PS To answer your question, my love of water was reinstated the very second I was no longer pregnant... literally chugged some right after delivery and it was wonderful!
Well like Judy said right after Meriel was born, "She knows her place" Apparently that place is a very determined one. It will be interesting to watch her grow up!
Okay, "Christina's World" is one of my very favorite paintings, certainly my favorite Andrew Wyeth. I actually got teary-eyed (I never cry, of course) when I read it because it is heart-breaking watching her hobble around like an 80 year old man.
I notice that in the picture right after the Wyeth that she is crawling toward the old toilet in the rose garden, so there's the answer to your original question.
These pictures are hilarious and I must say, she looks just like you! Were you "spirited", just like Meriel? Because my mother always looks at me when Josie does something very Josie-esque and says "You were never like this." The first time she said this we were still in the hospital and Jos was not quite 24 hours old and I thought it was very rude of my mother to say somehting so very hateful about my brand new little pink pig. But you know what? She was right. Josie never behaves the way I did, and I couldn't be more pleased. Pleased in a "You're ruining my life" sort of way. You know, happy.
Yah, I have to say that bottom picture is a complete Irene repeat. Good luck with her - the hobbling really does sound sad.
In answer to your scathing comments, I also do not have any love for video games. We've had an X-Box for quite some time and I've played it maybe once or twice. Ed doesn't even play it very often. Sadly Kimberlee is a master "gamer," but not because of how much she plays, that's just one of her talents. :) BUT, even I think the Wii is a lot of fun. We've made it a family affair...bonding over Mario Kart. You can't fault us for that.
MaryAnn, if Tim's family can bond over The Simpsons then you're certainly allowed to bond over video games. Bring on the Wii!
Poor little Meriel. I had a similar trampoline accident when I was two.... watch out for those tramps!
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