Ooh, I like WindSparrow's idea.

Last night Annabel managed to scare us to death. We'd put her to bed and thought she was sleeping there because everything was quiet. DH was upstairs playing a game on his computer, and I was downstairs judging a writing contest entry on the laptop.

Around midnight I heard a thumping noise and looked up to see Annabel rolling down the stairs. At some point she'd gotten out of her room quietly enough that neither of us noticed and then must've fallen asleep right at the top of the staircase. Fortunately our staircase is split, so she only fell down half a flight, and she was moving slowly enough that she didn't crash into the wall when she landed. Still, I thought she must be badly hurt. It was horrible. She didn't even make a sound until after she stopped moving, and then she was whimpering so miserably.

I felt like I was moving in slow motion, but DH and I got there in seconds. We snuggled her while we looked for knots on her head, made her move her arms and legs, asked her how many fingers we were holding up, and made her spell her name. Eventually we decided that she really was OK, that she'd somehow fallen down half a flight of stairs without hurting herself. And this morning she's fine. She woke up while I was posting this and came downstairs. I asked her if she remembered it, and she said yes, and that all the owies were gone now. And she's her normal happy, bright self.

But I swear it took a full hour for my heart rate to return to normal last night...

Aieeeeeeee, Susan!

Note to self: don't move into a home with stairs until Dylan is 25.

DH and I watched Finding Nemo last night b/c he interviewed the writer (who also wrote the upcoming Wall-E) and holy fuck the opening scene? We were both in little puddles on the floor. This is the first time I've rewatched it since becoming a parent. That movie should come with a warning label.

Eeeep! How scary, Susan. It's good to hear she is fine. Sounds like the parents got hurt more.

That movie should come with a warning label.

just count (I didn't notice this either until Iris was born) how many (Disney/Pixar) kids movies have 'lost parent/lost child' as either a theme or a starting point. Still great movies, but it's there, nonetheless (and in some cases, it's been there since Fairy Tales were fairy tales)

- Lion King - Nemo - Cinderella - Bambi - Peter Pan - Beauty & The Beast - The Little Mermaid - Ratatouille

...

Notable exceptions are Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters' Inc.

also? WAL-E? Looks really cute. Left-behind child cute, but cute.

- Lion King - Nemo - Cinderella - Bambi - Peter Pan - Beauty & The Beast - The Little Mermaid - Ratatouille

Aladin too.

{{{Susan}}} How scary! I'm glad Anabel is unhurt.

I'm generally OK with lost parent themes, and have, um, used them in my own work since becoming a mother myself. But I gave up on Year of Wonders when the narrator's children died, because one of them was exactly Annabel's age at the time I was reading, and it was described in way too much detail.

Though, now that I think about it, I've got a child death planned for Book 3 or 4 of the WIP series, and it's important enough to the plot that I can't let it happen totally offscreen or it'll dilute the impact too much.

The muse is a harsh mistress. I think I'm turning into the most callous mommy ever as long as the deaths are fictional...

Oh, Susan! That is SO scary. I'm so glad she (and you) are ok!

just count (I didn't notice this either until Iris was born) how many (Disney/Pixar) kids movies have 'lost parent/lost child' as either a theme or a starting point. Still great movies, but it's there, nonetheless (and in some cases, it's been there since Fairy Tales were fairy tales)

I actually studied this very thing in a class in Spring 2007. The class was on Orphans, and one whole section of the class was on orphans in literature. Our prof even pushed it as far as saying any coming-of-age story of a teenager is kind of an orphan story. Fascinating stuff, but ugh. So. Many. Orphans in literature.

Oh! Also, I meant to post this last night, but was at a bad angle for typing. YAY Steph for taking it easy.

I'm taking it even more easy today because it seems I overdid it yesterday. Couldn't go to sleep, then couldn't get up this morning. My pain pills are finally kicking in, though, and I have a bit more energy and less pain. I think we're going to go see Indy in a bit. And, since it's Indy 500 day, I should probably specify that we're going to see Indy Jones (though the Indy 500 is on in the tv room). YAY! Summer action movie!

It's not so much the lost parent thing as the "killing off 399 babies before the opening credits" in Finding Nemo. That's a pretty high body count for a G-rated cartoon.

In response to Ichiro's beer quote from yesterday, the USS Mariner readership is on a quest to find beer from Papua New Guinea: [link]

No luck so far. DH is about to try HT Market, the newish Asian grocery that's two blocks or so from our house, but I'll be stunned if it's there after all the places it hasn't been.